Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-05
By JAMES WATSON.

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The latest thing in dogs is one Of the
oldest dogs known to history. blu. as he
is new to England. therefore he is new to
ing dogs Of the Arabs, which goes by the
name OF selugi. though the English seem
to have altered the word to shlughi. The
former, with the 'g'' hard, Is the correct
way of spelling for proper pronunciation,
for the reason that tradition among the
Arabs is that the name came from Seleu-
Gus Nicator, one of the mighty men Of
times long past In oriental history. The
Arabian greyhound might be as good
name any, though that would apply more.
to the owners than the country of that
name, the dog is met with among the
nomadic tribes of northern Africa. and
through the French connection with AL
giers tn Selugi is very well known in south
ern France. In one point this breed differs
entirely from the dogs of the Russian wolf
hound type with which are to be coupled
the Afghan and Persian dogs. The Selugf
Is smooth coated like our greyhounds, while
the others are long coated. The latter.
again differ between themselves in the
matter of ears. the Russian variety having
much smaller ears. which are thrown back
In a fold when at rest, while the Persian
dog has ears hanging at the side of the
head and Seathered like settlers.
The Persian greyhound has long been a
well-known breed, but what knowledge ex-
listed in England sixty years ago regarding
the dog from specimens then in that coun-
try seems to have evaporated beautiful
Illustration of one of the dogs at the Zoo
logical Gardens appears in the 1915 edition
of Jesse's Anecdotes of Dogs. This is a
black and tan dog and l believe 1t has
been the custom to attribute black and tan
in the borzoi or Russian dog to the intro
duction of Persian blood All of this fam
lily of dogs are exceedingly old, antedating
the ancient western migration which spread
over Europe, and they were the original
coursing dog of the most ancient of hunt
ing men. That we do not find more refer
ences to them than we do In historical
monuments In Asia is due to the fact that
these monuments and sculptures are records
of kingly deeds and lion hunting and such
sports were kings sports, while coursing
antelopes was grade below that We
find better records In Egypt. but the artists
of both Egypt and Assyria were rather con-
ventional in their drawings and all Egyp-
tan dogs run to the greyhound type, even
in the case of depicting tribute dogs from
Asiatic sections of the vast empire. while
the ASsyr1an type was heavy mastif. We
have in the Egyptian tomb paintings some
very ancient courSing illustrations with deer
and gazelles as the quarry and the dogs
must of course have been heet-footed grey
hounds, or of that type
AS the new fancy dog Is owned by some
ladies of title they may become popular in
England and thus reach this country but
If they do 1t is to be hoped that we will
preserve the proper name and not copy the
English method of spelling the word.
OF the small Asiatic dogs lately introduced
Into England and being pushed by Mrs.
McLaren Morrison, the Thibet spaniels do
not seem TO be SO attractive as the Lhassa
terriers. They say that there is not suffl-
cient distinction between the Thibet dog
and the Pekingese, with the preponderance
of merit In favor of the Pekingese, but the
Lhassa dog Is we'll spoken of This is long
coate dog varying in color very much
as well as parti-colored. The coat is very
profuse, covering the face as in the Skye
or Yorkshire terriers. In the photograph of
one of the best of her Lhassa dogs which
Mrs. Morrison sent me for inspection, the
coat is not brushed fat as in the Yorkshire
and the legs are not smooth but the coat is
profuse all over the dog, legs and feet, as
well as body and head, and looks as IL II
wanted brushing, as 1t seems unkempt
In its native country the small ones are
highly valued. The remoteness of the coun-
try where they come from and-the difficulty
of getting specimens makes the Lhassa and
the Thibet dogs the scarcest of all the
fancy breeds, and so far none are known
to be in this country With $500 as the
current market price of the Pekineese span-
lei puppies the first crop OF the Lhassa ter
rier will be high-priced rarities indeed.
n
1t viii be well to mention in connection
with foreign dogs that it Is now possible to