474 
GROUP OF NORTH AFRICAN GAZELLE HOUNDS. 
THE PROPERTY OF HERR MICHEL LA FONTIJN. 
Gla Peg odcey Ribs Ae 
ORIENTAL GREYHOUNDS. 
BY THE HON. FLORENCE AMHERST.° 
“D’Orient est le berceau de la Civilisation parce que Orient est la 
patrie du Chien.’’—TOUSSENEL. 
“No bolder horseman in the youthful band 
E’ev rode in gay chase of the shy gazelle.” 
I. The Slughi, Tazi, or Gazelle Hound.* 
—The original home of the Slughi is 
difficult to determine. It is shown by 
the monuments of ancient Egypt that 
these Gazelle Hounds were kept in that 
country for hunting purposes, but they 
seem to have been of foreign importation 
—both from Asia and Africa, 
In Persia the Slughi is known as the 
“Sag-i Tazi”? (Arabian Hound), or merely 
as the ‘“Tazi,” which literally means 
“Arabian” (aterm also applied there to 
Arab horses), denoting an Arab origin. 
According to tradition at the present day on 
the Persian Gulf, it is said that these dogs 
* Name in Arabic, 
Masc.: Slughi (colloquial) ; Saluki (classical). 
Fem. : Slughiya (colloquial) ; Silaga (classical). 
Plural and genus, Salag. 
Name tn Persian. 
Tazi. 
EDWIN ARNOLD. 
came originally from Syria with the horse. 
Arabic writers say that the Slughi was only 
known to the Pharaohs, thanks to the Arabs 
and to their constant caravans that plied 
from immemorial times between the two 
countries. 
The name Slughi, which means a Grey- 
hound, bears with it a history recalling the 
vanished glories of Selukia and the Greek 
Empire in Syria, and Saluk, in the Yemen, 
that rich land of mystery and romance. 
The word originated from these places, once 
famous for their ‘“‘ Saluki” armour, and 
“Saluki” hounds. Other districts bearing 
similar names are quoted as being connected 
with these hounds. 
Although now, as formerly, valued by the 
amateurs of the chase, it is in the lone 
deserts, among the Bedawin tribes, that the 
teal home of the Slughi is to be found. 
There, in spite of the changes in the world 
