40 THE BRITISH MASTIFF. 



of the ancestor of the bulldog (or pure pugnaces) and the 

 mastiff, the latter closely resembling the former only larger, 

 and in all probability a cross between it and some larger 

 race. 



In this larger variety, used to guard the doors of the houses 

 of the Britons, and to protect their flocks and herds we can 

 plainly trace the mastiff and its superiority over the true 

 molossus. 



Strabo writing about 44 B.C. states Britain produces 

 sagacious dogs in hunting, and the Celts use them for the 

 purposes of war, and he mentions the pugnaces, remarking 

 their pendent ears, lowering aspect, and flabby lips. 



Diodorus Siculus, who flourished about the same date 

 states on Gallia, Lib. v. the Celts when they dined sat on the 

 ground, and not on benches, and used for a carpet the skins 

 of dogs and wolves. 



It is not out of place, being worthy of remark, showing the 

 early use made of dog skin, and hence cultivation of the dog, 

 that helmets were originally made of dog skin, whence the 

 Greek appellation Kwer; (Kunee) contracted by the Attics 

 into Kvvr). Subsequently however, soldier's caps and helmets 

 w r ere made of other skins than that of the dog, as we find 

 mention of Kweq raupeir; i.e. a helmet of bulls-hide, and the 

 word Kvverj in course of time came to mean a helmet of any 

 material whether of leather, iron, or brass, Vide Homer, 

 Lib. iii. 316 and 366. 



Arrian who wrote A.D. 130 about, and whose work w r as 

 translated by the Rev. W. Dansey, in 1831, mentions the 

 pugnaces of Britain and Gaul in his Cynegcticus, observing 



