96 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



the sources of the French Matin, so unphilosophi- 

 cally represented by Buffon as one of the great pro- 

 genitor breeds of dogs, though it is only an inferior 

 descendant of what is noAv called the great Danish 

 dog, or, more properly, the great house-dog of the 

 northern German nations. This race was anciently 

 of an iron-blue colour, and approached, in the form 

 of the mouth, the present Suliot dogs. The Mo- 

 lossi, unlike bull-dogs, who seldom, if ever, give 

 tongue, were prone to barking. 



■ domus simul alta Molosses personuit canibus. 



Lucretius. 



Virgil styles the race Acer Molossus. Nimesianus 

 speaks of rural Molossi. The present breed of the 

 Morea stiU retains its ancient characters, and is not 

 of mastiff form. It was when the Greeks became 

 acquainted with the true mastiff that they, accord- 

 ing to their constant practice, referred to some race 

 of their own, a different kind of dogs, but which 

 the gods, having created every thing in Greece, ne- 

 cessarily proceeded from thence ; and the Romans, 

 servile copiers of Greek ideas, applied the same 

 name of Molossian to the British bull-dog, when 

 they became acquainted with it.* 



The Arcadian dogs, Leonicii leontomiges, said to 

 be sprung from hons, show an approach to mastiffs, 

 only that they were not with drooping ears; for 

 Megasthenes, being, we believe, the most ancient 



* Yet Gratius makes the distinction, when he admits the 

 inferiority of the Molossian to the British. CjTiegeticon, 175. 



