ORIENTAL GREYHOUNDS. 
are endowed with sagacity and great powers 
of endurance. So fully qualified for their 
work, no wonder they are preserved with so 
much care, and the Arabs may well say of 
them as of their treasured horses, ‘‘ Are not 
these the inheritance of our fathers, and 
shall not we to our sons bequeath them ? ” 
The natives give great attention to the 
rearing of their Slughi. They bring them 
up for a year on sheep’s milk, which is said 
to make them strong, and especially swift. 
When they are old enough they are fed with 
the hawks. 
When quite young they are taught to 
bring back to their master bones and desert 
rats which have been thrown for them to 
retrieve. The children assist at their early 
education. At about six months old the 
puppies are taken out to hunt rats and jerboa, 
and are subsequently taught to course hares, 
and finally gazelle. They are occasionally 
trained only by accom- 
panying a well-trained 
477 
from many sources. A few scattered refer- 
ences from some of these will give an outline 
of its story. 
A glance at the Egyptian fragment of 
Heirokompolis shows the Slughi as far 
back as the pre-dynastic period, 6,000 B.c. 
They are represented in the Fifth Dynasty 
as the sporting companions of kings, 3,800 
B.c.; in the Twelfth Dynasty in life-like 
scenes of sport ; in the Eighteenth Dynasty 
mural paintings portray, as spoils of war, pairs 
of beautiful golden and also white Gazelle 
Hounds with feathered tails. Mummied 
Slughi are also found (see p. 5). A new 
one has lately been discovered in the 
Tombs of the Kings. 
Again through Egypt which affords records 
of pre-Israelitish Palestine, a glimpse is 
given of these dogs in the desert beyond 
Jordan. May not these early allusions tend 
to the acceptance of the use of the word 
dog. At two years old 
they should be fully 
qualified for sport. 
They are kept in lean 
condition to make them 
keen. 
The scattered tribe 
of the Soleyb, the great 
hunters of the desert, 
in parts of Syria and 
Mesopotamia, are 
especially famed as 
breeders of the Slughi. 
A Soleyb will occasion- 
ally do a little dog deal- 
ing, and will go far 
across the desert to 
complete a bargain. As 
a rule, however, the 
Slughi is presented as a gift by one chief to 
another, or as a mark of esteem to travellers, 
the owners refusing money for them, so 
tenacious are they of their valuable dogs. 
The Slughi used to be imported from Koweit, 
with horses, by sea to India; but this 
commerce has ceased with the decline of 
the horse trade. 
The history of the Slughi must be drawn 
SLUGHIS ON THE EGYPTIAN DESERT. 
“ Greyhound,” m the verse in Proverbs 
(ch. xxx. 31), to denote one of the fcur 
things that are “comely in going” ? 
In specimens of art in Assyria, notably 
on a bronze bowl from the palace of Nim- 
roud, preserved in the British Museum, 
Greyhounds coursing hares are beautifully 
designed. During their expeditions to 
“ Arabia,’ the Greeks noticed the ‘swift 
