196 SPORT IN EUROPE 



safe remedy in case of encounter. Never attempt to beat off your 

 assailant with a stick or stone : for he will then surely fly at you ; 

 nor shoot at him, unless you are prepared for unpleasant conclusions 

 with the shepherds. Adopt rather the very simple expedient of 

 Ulysses and squat on the ground, looking very inoffensive. The 

 dog will never touch you, but will continue barking until his master, 

 urged also by your own appeals, comes to the rescue and calls off 

 your tormentor, who will then obey as implicitly as did the dogs of 

 Eumseus "the divine swineherd." The conditions of peasant life 

 in Greece have never changed. 



These shepherd dogs are sometimes trained to sport. What 

 other sporting dogs are to be found in Greece are mixed breeds of 

 foreign importation. There is only in Crete one indigenous sporting 

 race, of which Pashley says: "The Cretan animals are all of one 

 race, and are peculiar to the island. Tournefort {i. 95) calls them 

 des Uvriers bdtards. They are smaller than the greyhound, and have 

 a lonoer and rouoher coat of hair ; their head is somewhat like that 

 of the wolf; they follow their game by scent, and are very sagacious 

 animals, resembling, in every respect, the lurcher rather than the 

 greyhound. I feel no doubt that these dogs are the undebased 

 descendants of those mentioned by ancient authors. ""^ 



A dog is indispensable in Greece, especially when shooting near 

 cliffs in the islands, where birds hit often drop into the sea. A dog 

 also saves much trouble in searching the rough undercliffs, and is 

 invaluable in marshes, in reclaiming game from among the long 

 and thickly-growing reeds. In a word, it brings in many a head of 



* /Elian, N.A.^ iii. 2, and Meursius' Creta^ p. 95. 



