ORIENTAL HOUND. 185 



them " Leopard-dogs like wolves, witli long soft 

 ear^, so that they hang down ; but if the ears are 

 erect and large, they are not to be rejected." * 



It is now probably impossible to fix upon the 

 oldest form of the hound, but if we commence 

 by the Elymmn^ and take the figure of a leash- 

 hound in the Egyptian pictures for a type, and the 

 blood-hound, which is of most ancient estimation 

 in the West, the dog who, in sagacity, power, and 

 olfactory acuteness, stood for ages preeminent over 

 the whole, we find them sufficiently similar to each 

 other, while the more delicate perceptions of several 

 gun-dogs, although we think them superior, are a 

 result of comparatively later care and training. 



We may here remark upon the packs of the 

 Continent, such as they were before the French 

 Revolution, that the breeds of England only be- 

 came fashionable, and introduced there after the 

 Duke of Orleans had visited this country. In 

 France, reddish dogs were still generally used to 

 hunt the wolf to the year 1779» and those of Prince 

 Charles of Lorraine, kept at Laaken, mostly of a 

 rust colour, with black backs; but his establish- 

 ment was on the ancient footing, consisting, in part, 

 of matches or pairs of similarly coloured dogs and 

 breeds, but each pair somewhat differing in race : 

 thus there were mastiffs, rough greyhoimds, matin- 

 dogs, and large terriers; several, or all of these, 



* Demet. Const, ^rs^* r riii kuvcji iniMXna;. l\Iost cited 

 by Don Gaspar Bazzio. 



