310 



GREYHOUNDS AND THEIR ARAB MASTERS. 



If we travel about from one country to another, we shall 

 find that each one has a particular kind of dog which is 

 considered useful and precious above all others. In 

 Scotland it is the collie which is most prized, in the 

 high Alps it is the St. Bernard, while in Greenland no 

 one would get on at all without the Eskimo dogs, who 

 draw sledges and do quantities of other needful work, 

 and in Newfoundland there are very few houses which 

 cannot boast of one of the huge black good-natured dogs 

 who are equally ready to be nurses to the children, or to 

 jump into the water to save a drowning man. 



Now, in the high plains of Kordofan, which lie to the 

 west of the White Nile, the greyhound or wind dog, as it 

 is called by the Germans, is held in great honour. If 

 you walk through any of the villages, you will see three 

 or four greyhounds lying before the door of every hut, 

 each one more beautiful than the other. They are the 

 village'policemen, and guard the people from the fierce 

 leopards and hyaenas which steal down at night from the 

 caves where they sleep all day, and prowl round in search 

 of a supper. Like their enemies, the greyhounds sleep 

 during the long hot hours when the sun is up, but the 

 moment he sinks, and the quick darkness of the tropics 

 comes on, they stretch themselves and begin to set 

 about performing their duties. There is no quarrelling 

 or confusion — each dog seems to have his post, and he 

 goes to it at once. If the village is walled in, a certain 



