SALUKI DOGS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 123, 27 May 1933, Page 6

SALUKI DOGS

AN ANCIENT BREED

Dog-lovers and others interested in thoroughbred animals will be interested to learn that another specimen of the Saluki breed of. dog, the second to be imported into New Zealand by Mr. J. 1\ B. Stovenson, oil Wellington, will arrive at Wellington about June 14 by the Eotorua from Home. Mr. i Stevenson imported a Saluki dog last i November which he keeps on his] property at Titahi Bay, and which is now eighteen months old. The Saluki arriving by the Eotorua is a female, two and a half years old, bred in Mesopotamia, and named Zora al Supaya. Its sire was a celebrated Saluki called Ali Baba of Irak. It, is claimed that the Salukis are the oldest pure breed in the world. They have been kept pure and pedigreebred from time immemorial in tho dcßcrtß in Arabia, in Syria, the Sahara, Egypt, and Persia, and for many thousands of years' have been used to hunt gazelles. Typical Salukis are depicted on the tombs of ancient Egypt. They appear at Hierankonpolis as early as 3600 B.C. and frequently in later periods. They are specially noticeable in the beautiful miniature paintings of the Mogul periods. The fact that the Saluki has remained free from crosses is owing to the great expanse of uninhabited lands which surround the Arab who, in a world of his own, has continued to breed his favourite typo of hound without the interference, of outside influences. This adds a special and very great value to the breed, as it affords a study in heredity from ■ countless centuries. The celebrated dog authority Ash details the attention which is lavished upon the Salukis by their masters and the excitement which the arrival of puppies creates. When the puppies are three or four months old. their education commences and rats are driven out, for them to catch. At six months they are tried on' hares and afterwards on young gazelles. The Saluki is said to be able to travel at over 43 miles au hour. The pursuit of the gazelle is generally undertaken, with the aid of a hawk.

This...sport .of coursing- with falcon and greyhound has been known for centuries, and is still practised in the desert, whore the gazelle abounds. The Saluki, I))' training, is taught to pursue tho same animal as the. .hawk,1 When the hawk has struck his prey', tho hound holds it down • until hunters come up. : • . 1 Salukis accompany their masters on visits and receive tho same hospitality and a portion of every dish. On {lie death of a Saluki the whole tent goes into mourning, women and children bewailing him as if he were one of the | family. '