THE ALAX OR ALAUNT. 47 



reality he was little .else than a Spanish bull mastiff or Alano, 

 and think that it is very probable that the smooth coated old 

 Alpine mastiff race was procured from Spain. 



However it is to Spain we must look for the clue to the 

 term Alan or Alano, and I premise my suggestion for the 

 origin of the term, by mentioning that Spain as well as Ireland 

 and probably Cornwall, was colonized by the Phoenicians as 

 is exhaustively sketched in Sir Win. Betham's work " The 

 Gael and the Cimbri." 



I think it is probable that the word Alan was the Phoenician 

 term to denote the Asiatic mastiff and was introduced by them 

 into Britain as well as Spain. 



We see that the Molossi gave their name to the dogs of 

 their country, and I would suggest that it is only probable 

 that the Alani gave their name to the mastiffs of their land. 

 Hence Canes Alani, dogs of the Alan's, and asMolossus means 

 the dog of Epirus, and in a secondary sense a watch dog or 

 kind of mastiff. By the same custom Alani gives an Alan, or 

 in a secondary sense a cattle dog or mastiff, employed as a 

 guard against the wolf. 



The Alani were a people of Asiatic, Sarmatia, or Tartary, 

 living in the valleys of the ancient Caucasus. This south- 

 western portion of Asiatic Russia lies between the Caspian 

 and Mare Sarmaticum or Black Sea, and stretches southwards 

 from the high ridges ot the Caucasus to the frontiers of Asiatic 

 Turkey and Persia, embracing the ancient Colchis, Albania, 

 and a portion of Armenia, including Mount Ararat, the cradle 

 of the canine as well as human race. 



The word Alan is still the Slavonic name for a wolf dog, 

 and we mid the Assyrians were possessed of the mighty 

 Asiatic mastiff. 



