THE BLACK WOLF. 153 
mal, and there is an indication that, like the former, 
it assimilates more with dogs than the grey wolf, 
for the Arabs eat its flesh like game, which proves 
that it cannot have the very offensive smell that 
real wolves possess. 
In the British islands wolves existed even to a 
late period, although there was at all times a ten- 
dency to their being extirpated. ‘ Nullos fovet 
Brittania” (/upos) is a quotation from Textor, cited 
by Gesner; and it is probable that the Romans 
laboured to clear the island of them. The Saxon 
monarchs pursued the same measures, as is attested 
by the tribute of wolves’ heads they demanded from 
the Welsh. The more lawless Norman conquerors 
were, however, not so patriotic ; they bestowed only 
lands by the tenure of keeping dogs to hunt wolves. 
Whether they were real wolves or only wild dogs, 
is a question that cannot now be clearly decided ; it 
is nevertheless worth observing, that the Celtic 
terms faol, mactire, and blaidd, designating the 
wolf, are not so often found in the old manuscripts 
as the Gaelic mada alluidh, ferocious dog, and fiadh 
choin and faolchu, wild dog, or faol teach, wolf- 
mouth, or the Welsh gwyddgwn, wild dogs. Tradi- 
tion, in North Britain, likewise favours the opinion 
that the so-called wolf was in reality a wild dog, 
resembling the Irish wolf-hound, and was the parent 
of the gazehound.* It hunted in packs. The last 
* It is, however, not at all clear what we are to understand 
by gazehound. 
