196 THOUS ANTHUS. 
Dr Ruppel obtained specimens about Bahar el 
Azrak. It is not common in Egypt. The same 
traveller observed a head taken from the catacombs 
of Syout or Lycopolis, which he concluded to be of 
this species. It may be also the animal the ancient 
Eeyptians employed to typify the southern hemi- 
sphere, as perhaps the Syrian chaon designated the 
northern. Professor Kretschmer, in Ruppel’s Atlas, 
after remarking upon his unwillingness to view all 
the races of dogs as descended from one stock, al- 
though it be difficult, even in those the most 
decidedly marked and possessed of the greatest 
purity of descent, to decide from which of the ori- 
ginal species they may be derived, is nevertheless 
disposed to consider the Thous anthus as the abori- 
ginal species whence the Egyptians obtained their 
domestic dogs; and in support of this opinion, he 
appeals to the similarity existing between that 
species and the smaller breed of wolf-dogs (the 
Pomeranian dog) still abundant in the vicinity of 
Frankfort. But he appears to overlook this ques- 
tion, even if it were decided, that the mummy dogs 
of Egypt were embalmed from their domestic race, 
whether those of Lycopolis, or the wolf city, be- 
longed to it. The probability, we think, would be 
that they were entombed one degree lower down 
the river at Cynopolis, or the dog city, on the island 
opposite Eo, where Anubis was the presiding divi- 
nity, and the attendant priests ate their food out of 
the same dish with the sacred dogs. Although it 
is not unlikely that this race also produced a breed 
