|
|
Dog Articles
Past and Present:
Persian
Gazellehound, or Slughi
This
ancient race is one of the most peculiar, most beautiful, and most
puzzling of dogs. His graven image comes to us as one of the
earliest of man's essays in art, and is so easily recognizable that
there is no doubt possible as to the archaic artist's model.
Possibly no dog known has changed less from our earliest knowledge
of it to the present day.
The first
peculiarity to strike the eye is the curious combination of short,
close body hair, with silky, flowing Afghan fleece on the ears and
long silken feather from the stern. Otherwise he looks at first
glance very like a greyhound.
But,
unlike other coursing dogs, the Slughi is short and straight in the
body, though very long and rangy of leg. As he stands in profile the
outline of fore legs, back, hind leg, and ground form an almost
perfect square.
A fact
tending to show the antiquity of the Slughi is that no combination
of known dogs seems to be capable of producing a creature just like
him.
In color
they are almost without limit. Cream, fawn, ‘hound’ colors—that is,
black, with tan chops, legs, belly, and feather—seem to predominate,
and while pictures are rather rare and the dogs practically
non-existent outside the Mediterranean regions of Africa and upper
India, we have never seen any that were irregularly pied with white,
as are most dogs.
This
argues a very dominant character for their ancient ancestors, for
this symmetry or coloring, found in all wild animals, is about the
first superficial characteristic to disappear under domestication;
and when it persists, as in this instance, through countless
generations, we may be sure of a very persistent and dominant
character for the original wild stock.
The
Gazellehound is about the size of a medium greyhound - 26 to 28
inches at the shoulder. The falcon is sometimes used to harry the
game until the dogs come up with it.
Source:
National Geographic 1919
Recommended Reading
Dog Training
Mastery - An Owners' Manual
|
|
