ORDER V. THE CAUNIVORA. Gl 



Drover or "Watch Dog, I)nt not with tlic Bull Dog or ]\Iastiff; for that khul 

 was unknown until the march of Ahwaniler made Greece acrpiainted with 

 it. The Ciiaonian is most likely still to he seen in the great AVatch Dogs 

 of Epirus, and even in tlic race of Asia ]\Iinor ; and, as it is mentioned also 

 among the Cretan, where the Molossian were fahlcd to have hcen cast i:i 

 brass by Vulcan, and animated by Jupiter, we may conclude that it was 

 imported during the swarming of the Cyelopian, and other nations, after 

 they were expelled from Albanian Iberia and High Asia, and were wander- 

 ing, for some centuries, along tlie seas in quest of [)lunder and new homes. 

 Of this race were also, no doubt, tlie Cretan Diaphonoi, who fought by 

 day and hunted by night. But the Parip[)i seem to have been small, and 

 carried on horses, as was afterwards done in the romantic era of Western 

 Europe, by knights and damsels with their brachets. 



Cadius and others advert, however, to a race of blue or slate-colored 

 ^Nlolossi, not highly esteemed by the sportsmen of antiijuity ; wdiicli, never- 

 theless, we are inclined to consider as the sources of the French ^latin, so 

 xmphilosophically represented liy Buffon as one of the great progenitor 

 breeds of dogs,- though it is only an inferior descendant of wliat is now 

 called the Great Danish Dog, or more properly the Great House Dog of 

 the northern German nations. This race was anciently of an iron-lduc 

 color, and approached, in tlic form of the mouth, the present Suliot dogs. 

 The iMolossi, unlike liuU D(.igs, who seldom if e\er give tongue, were 

 prone to barking. 



Virgil styles the race Acer ^Molossus. Xemesianus speaks of rural Mo- 

 lossi. The present breed of the ^lorea still retains its ancient characters, 

 and is not of ]\IastifF form. It was when the Greeks became acrpiainted 

 with the true jMastift' that they, according to their constant 2)ractice, referred 

 to some race of their own, a different kind of dugs, but wliicli, the gods 

 having created evervthing in tireece, necessarily pro<'ecdcd from thence ; 

 and the Bomans, servile copiers of Greek ideas, applied the same name of 

 Molossian to the British Bull Dog when they became aci|uainted with it. 



The Arcadian dogs (^Lr^onicil Icontomiyes'^ , said to be sprung from 

 lions, show an approach to uMastifts, with the exception of the drooping 

 cars ; for ilegasthenes, being, we believe, the most ancient writer who 

 notices that peculiarity, would scarcely have mentioned it as such in Persia 

 if it had been known among any breed of dogs in Greece. 



The Alopecides of Sparta seem not to have been valued, as, accord- 

 ing to Xenoplion, who compares them witii the Castorides, they were 

 under-sized, and consequently wanting in audacity and perseverance ; their 

 principal use was in securing small game. Yet, according to Xicander, 

 the Castorides were dun-colored diigs, of a similar -sulpiae origin as the 



