228 APPENDIX. 



Acriiis exultans vastus in pra;lia barros 

 Provocat, et tantam (dictu mirabile) niolem 

 Sternit ; at ingentem procumbens ille ruinam 

 Per dumosa trahit, garritu tesqua sonoro 

 Dissultant, gliscitque gravis venantibus horror. 



Bodin supposes Oppian to allude to the Canis Indicus in his 1st 

 Cynegetic, vs. 413. ; but as the poet does not mention any name, 

 and particularly specifies a want of speed in the dogs he describes, I 

 should rather refer his sketch to the Molossian or true Epirote, (if it 

 must have a particular application,) than to the Indian or Albanian. 

 I have no doubt, however, that it is, as already stated, a general 

 description of the pugnacious type, and therefore includes both 

 Indian and Molossian. 



Many of the anecdotes of the Indian dog are promiscuously told 

 of the Albanian, Iberian, and Hyrcanian ; and it certainly is diffi- 

 cult to point out any distinctive characters between them. Of the 

 latter I shall presently speak, in the rotation in which he is recorded 

 by Gratius. The Albanian and Iberian are undoubtedly consimi- 

 lars, strongly impregnated with the Molossian cast — natives of the 

 Asiatic district indifferently called Iberia and Albania. They are 

 celebrated by modern travellers as much as by classic historical 

 Hist. Natur. and cynegetical writers. Pliny does not name the country of the 

 dog " inusitatai magnitudinis " given to Alexander by a king of 

 Albania ; ^ though it would be a fair conclusion that the dog was of 



L. VUI. C. XL. 



1. To this dog Priscian alludes in his Periegesis, vs. 706. : 



Poeta; Latini Hie sunt Albani bellaces marte feroci; 



Minores. Unde canes nati superant genus omne ferarum. 



Tom. V.P.I. ,, ^, J ■ u- -1 



Wernsdorf. Magnus Alexander niissum sibi viderat inde 



Victorem barrique canem, rapidique leouis : — 



and John of Salisbury celebrates the race in his Policraticus ; the merits of the 

 breed losing nothing of its lustre, but rather gaining, in tiie prose narration ; — 



De Nugis " Albani quidem in Asi^ canes habent leonibus fortiores : eos virtute canum, et sua; 



Curiahum gentis artificio, quasi imbelles bestiolas populantur. Canibus quidem illis nulla 

 ferarum fortior, nulla animosior est. Hos Hercules, tergemino Gerjone victo, ab 

 Italia trajecit in Asiam, eis virtutem qua leones sternerent, quasi hereditariam dere- 

 linquens," Sec. 



