Dogs of the Anctents. 89 
similar sheep-stealing errand, which his vigilance frustrated, 
though at the cost of his life. 
Assuming, as we are justified from the concurrence of all 
the evidence, that the dog was derived from several feral 
species, it is no easy task to determine at what historical 
period those differences which distinguish him from his wild 
ancestors had become established. There is scarcely anything, 
except perhaps the coat, to distinguish many colleys and 
Pomeranians from the wolf. The form of the skull and 
muzzle is the same; the ears are short and erect, and the 
general proportions quite lupine, though we know these 
breeds to have been under domestication for a prolonged 
period. But when and where did such marked forms as 
the bulldog, bloodhound, and greyhound appear? Ancient 
monuments answer this question partially at least. The 
figure of the dog appears frequently in Assyrian sculpture, 
but, though differentiation had evidently then begun to 
take place, there are no extreme forms. The Egyptians 
embalmed their lap-dogs with as much care as kings and 
warriors, but the mummies might be placed in Goldsmith’s 
general category of 
Mongrel puppy, whelp, and hound, and curs of low degree. 
An inspection of the earliest Egyptian representations shows a 
pretty constant type, while among those belonging to. the later 
dynasties may be found one scarcely differing from the present 
ownerless scavengers of Alexandria and Cairo, together with 
another form, lanky, long-muzzled, short-haired, and whip- 
tailed, which might pass as a poor specimen of the grey- 
hound. A pair of these coupled together, one with the ears 
drooping, the other with them erect, clearly represent fast 
hunting dogs of light build, spotted, or rather blotched, 
somewhat after the fashion of the Dalmatian. A few examples, 
too, closely approach the form of our modern  turnspits. 
More important in some respects is the mastiff-like figure 
on the ,jtomb of Esar-haddon, which we may place at six 
and a half centuries before the Christian era, the stock, 
