128 HARLEQUIN BREED EGYPTIAN DOGS. 



Country, where we make all kinds of experiments with our Dogs and Horses. We 

 must confess our own want of information on that point, submitting- however to 

 those Sportsmen who are fond of novelty and shew, whether a pack of Harriers of 

 this kind would not prove a crack thing. At any rate, they would make a gay and 

 dashing spectacle in full cry, although the music might not be very loud or 

 melodious, an affair however not so much regarded in modern fashion. They would 

 be as slow, perhaps, as hare hunters could wish, who find beagles too fast, and if they 

 would but run long enough, the plan would be complete. 



It is said, a spotted Variety of the Terrier kind, marked with white, tan-colour, 

 and black, has of late years been introduced to some parts of the Kingdom ; and as 

 they have never been numerous, they have been in proportioned high estimation, 

 and some of them have been sold at considerable prices. They are found to possess 

 agreeable qualities, having all the spirit of sporting dogs, with the attachment of 

 the most faithful of their kind, blended with all the elegance of the lap-dog. AVe 

 know not what breed this can be, unless one between the Coach Dog and Terrier, 

 which we have experienced, and of which the name, as given to us, was the Har- 

 lequin breed. We have found them most excellent vermin dogs, and faithful 

 keepers. 



Some Travellers in Egypt, have observed the Spotted Hound in that Country, or 

 at least, a sort of Greyhound which resembles the Dalmatian breed, indicating 

 them as natives of a hot climate, and giving a degree of countenance to their ap- 

 pellation of Bengal Harrier. The cruel and capricious treatment of brute animals, 

 in all societies of rational creatures, has been the perpetual subject of surprise and 

 regret, to the few who reflect and moralize ; but in the Eastern and Mahomedan 

 Countries, this kind of caprice has ever existed to a degree of extravagance scarcely 

 credible. In some communities, the highest degree of cruelty is blended with the 

 most exemplary acts of charity, and that towards the same kind of animal. Again, 

 one species is almost deified, whilst another is abandoned, starved, and persecuted 

 with the most unrelenting and superstitious hatred, even amid the most distin- 

 guished services and benefits conferred by them. This has no doubt arisen in great 

 measure, from the invariable bias of the ancient Eastern lawgivers to refer all their 

 rules and instructions to occult -and superstitious causes, affording to their barbarous 

 and unenlightened population, no other than such erroneous motives of action, and 

 protracting- to the latest possible date, the influence of common sense. 



The towns of Egypt are said to contain more dogs, than any other in the known 

 world, and they always appear a prominent object, from (he circumstance of their 

 constantly assembling- in the streets, their only dwelling place, feeding on what 

 they can find, or starving to death, their dead and dying carcases forming a horrible 

 spectacle and nuisance. They are studiously neglected by the Mahomedans, as 

 though such an act of cruelty were meritorious, beaten and butchered without 

 mercy. The condition of these poor animals, as may be supposed, is the lowest and 



