Erect-eared hound from Cyprus; 300-400 B.C. Metropolitan Museum of Art
English: Title: The American Museum journal Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches) Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s) Authors: American Museum of Natural History Subjects: Natural history Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: 408 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL hence figures extensively in classic literature. Martial's epigram, for instance, is well known. Finally, it may be instructive to note the observations which Arrian, a military officer in the service of the Emperor Hadrian, has written down in regard to coursing, as prac- tised among the Gauls with both scent- and sight-hounds. In his dissertation on hunting he writes: "The most opulent and luxurious among Text Appearing After Image: Courtesy Melropolilan Museum oj Art, TV. Y. Erect-eared hound from Cyprus; 300-400 B.C. the Gauls course in this manner. They send out good Hare-finders early in the morning, to those places where it is likely to find Hares sitting, who send back word if they have found any, and what number; then they go out themselves, and put them up, and lay in the dogs, themselves following on horseback. "Whoever has good greyhounds should never lay them in too near the Hare, nor run more than two at a time. For, though the animal is very swift, and will oftentimes beat the dogs, yet, when she is first started, she is so terrified by the hollowing and by the dogs being very close, that her heart is overcome by fear; and, in the confusion, very often the best sporting Hares are killed without shew- ing any diversion. She should, therefore, be suffered to run some distance from her form and re-collect her spirits, and then, if she is a good sporting Hare, she will lift up her ears, and stretch out with long rates from her seat, the dogs directing their course after her with great activity of limbs, as if they were leaping, affording a spectacle worthy the trouble that must necessarily be employed in properly breeding and training these dogs." Finally, special mention may be made of one of the subjects represented in the accom- panying illustrations. Varieties of the hound, including the familiar one with erect ears, are incised in a limestone grave-stela now in the Cairo Museum. It is a royal monument found at Thebes, and dates from the 11th dynasty, approximately 2100 B.C. The following note regarding this stela has been kindly supplied by Miss Caroline Ransom, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The stela shows King Horus accompanied by one attendant and five of his dogs. The latter were evidently of a southern race, for all have Berber names inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphs above their figures, and in three instances a translation of the foreign name into Egyptian is written vertically before the dog's breast. This stela finds mention in an Egyptian document written nearly one thou- sand years later than the date of its erection, namely in the "Abbott papyrus" now in the British Museum. In this document is con- tained the official report of the inspection of the royal tombs, under Rameses IX of the twentieth dynasty, to ascertain what damage had been done by tomb robbers. It is one of the romantic episodes of Egyptian archae- ology that the actual stela mentioned in the ancient document should come to light." Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.