close to the form where the animal is couched. Then by a slight exclamation they set on the young dog, who rushes at the hare, and soon acquires the habit of coursing with speed and intelligence. From the hare they pass to the young of the gazelle. The Arabs approach the spot where these are lying near their mother and direct the attention of the greyhound to them. As soon as he is thoroughly excited and rears up with impatience, they let him go. After a few lessons of this kind, the greyhound understands perfectly what to do, and begins to press forward resolutely in chase of the old hinds themselves. “When a year old the greyhound has very nearly reached his full strength. His scent is developed, and he follows the gazelle by its slot. Nevertheless, he is kept under some restraint, and not until the age of fifteen to eighteen months is he regularly allowed to hunt. From that period, however, he is held in leash, and often with great difficulty; for the Arabs say that when the greyhound scents the game, his muscular power becomes so great that, if he stiffens himself upon his paws, a man can hardly make him lift a leg. As soon as he sights a herd of thirty or forty gazelles, he trembles with joy, and looks up at his master, who cries to him: Ah, son of a Jew! thou canst not say this time that thou didst not see them.' The hunter then takes off his goat's-skin bag and pours a little water on the back and belly of the hound, who, in his impatience, casts a suppliant eye on his master. At last, he is free and bounds forward. Presently he tries to hide himself, stoops down, and follows a circuitous course. until he is within an easy distance, when he springs forward with all his might, and picks out for his victim the finest male in the herd. When the hunter cuts When the hunter cuts up the gazelle, he throws to the slougui the flesh around the kidneys. If he were to offer him the intestines, he would reject them with disdain. The greyhound that cannot hunt at two years' old will never be able to do so. There is a saying to this effect A greyhound after two years, And a man after two fasts (15 years); ' Meaning thereby that that is the proper age to judge what either will ever be worth. He has no lack of "The greyhound is an intelligent animal and full of selflove. If, in slipping him, a fine gazelle is pointed out to him and he kills only a common-looking one, he is very sensible. of the reproaches addressed to him, and slinks off, ashamed of himself, without claiming his portion. vanity, and indulges much in fantasia. slougui will neither eat nor drink from a dirty vessel, and refuses milk in which the hand has been dipped. Has he not been taught this disdainful daintiness? And yet the utmost that is done for the common dog, their faithful and vigilant guardian, is to let him find his food among the offal and bones that are lying about. And while the latter is driven with hootings from tent and table, the greyhound sleeps in the compartment reserved for men, on carpets by his master's side, or on his very bed. He is clothed and sheltered from the cold, like the horse, and is even preferred for being chilly, as that is an additional proof of the purity of his race. The women take pleasure in bedecking him with ornaments, in tying collars of shells round his neck, and in securing him from the evil eye by fastening talismans on him. He is fed with care, nicety, and caution, kouskoussou being lavished upon him. In summer time, to give him strength, they make a paste of milk and dates of which the stones have been extracted. There are some who never feed their greyhounds during the day. Nor is this all. The slougui accompanies his master when on a visit, and receives the same hospitality with him, having a portion of every dish. "A thoroughbred greyhound will hunt with no one but his master. By his cleanliness, his respect for decency, and the graciousness of his manner, he shows that he recognises the attention paid to him. On his master's return after a somewhat prolonged absence, the slougui leaps with a bound on to his saddle, and caresses him. The Arabs talk to him: 'O friend, listen to me! You must bring me some meat. I am tired of eating dates:' and flatter him in many ways. The petted animal leaps about in a frolicsome manner, and seems not only to understand but to wish to reply. The death of a slougui fills the whole tent with mourning, the women and children bewailing him as if he were one of the family. Sometimes it falls to the greyhound to find food for all, and one who nourishes a family can never be for sale. Now and then, however, he may be given away in compliance with the supplications of women relatives or of the most respected marabouts. A greyhound that catches with ease the sine, or diminutive gazelle, and the ademi, the largest kind, is worth a she-camel; but one that can overtake the rime, a gazelle of the intermediate species, distinguished by the whiteness of its belly and thighs and the length of its horns, is priced as a valuable horse. "The greyhound of the Sahara is far superior to that of the Tell. He is of a tawny colour, and tall, with a sharp snout, broad forehead, short ears, and muscular neck; the muscles of the hind-quarters being also very prominent. He has no belly, clean limbs, well detached sinews, the hock near the ground, the under part of the paw small and dry, the palate and the tongue black, and the hair very soft: between the two ilia there should be the breadth of four fingers, and the tip of the tail should be able to pass under the thigh and reach the hip-bone. Both the forearms are generally fired in five lines to harden the muscles. "The most renowned greyhounds of the Sahara are those of the Hamiân, the Oulad-sidi-Shikh, the Harar, the Arbâa, and the Oulad-Naïl." A horse The Arabs hunt both on foot and on horseback. man who would chase the hare must take with him a greyhound, which is called slougui, from Slouguià, a spot where they were originally produced from the coupling of shewolves with dogs. The male slougui lives twenty years, the female twelve. Greyhounds that are able to run a gazelle down are rare.1 Horses of the Sahara. By General E. Daumas. CHAPTER XXV. HERODOTUS has recorded that among the Egyptians, if a dog died, all the people of the house shaved their whole bodies and their heads; and that all persons buried their dogs in sacred vaults within their own city. The consecration of animals among that ancient nation (whose sublime monuments, hoary with untold ages, still stand serenely eyeing the stream of time which has consigned the labours of so many empires to oblivion,) was, perchance, partly drawn from the desire to infuse mercy and kindness into the hearts of men towards their subject creatures. The present condition of the dog on the banks of the Nile, in Egypt, is not improved since those remote times. The dogs of the Egyptian towns are masterless, and live on carcasses thrown out on the mounds of rubbish outside the walls, on offal, and what is cast them by the charitable. In the villages and with the shepherds along the desert they are better cared for, protecting the property of the people from thieves, and their animals from wild beasts. These dogs are generally sandy in colour, but they vary-some are black, and others white. At Erment, near Thebes, is a breed of black dogs, quite different from those of Lower Egypt-fierce, excellent watchers, and having roughish wiry hair and drooping but small ears they are stated to be derived from the Howara Arabs. Numbers of dogs congregate on some of the rubbish mounds |