A GAZELLE HOUND

Hokitika Guardian, 5 December 1932, Page 7

A GAZELLE HOUND

DOG OF AN ANCIENT BREED.

ARRIVAL OF RANGITANE,

According to current tradition in Persian Gulf, the dog known as the Saluki, or gazelle hound, came originally from Syria with the horse. The story" may be true, or it may bo false; but at all events one of tho same breed, a slim black and tan creature built on racing lines, arrived in Wellington by the Rangitane. The breed is remarkable for having maintained right to the present day the same form and standard that it had when used for Jiunting in Egypt in the years of the Pharoahs. The one which arrived here yesterday, the first of its kind to land in New Zealand, has been imported by Mr J. F. B. Stevenson, barrister and solicitor, of Wellington. It has been authoritatively claimed that the Sliluki are the oldest pure breed .ih the world. They have been kept pure and pedigree-bred frorii time immemorial in the deserts in Arabia, in Syria, the Sahara, Egypt, and Persia, and' for many thousands of years have been used to hunt gazelles. Thb Saluki, in Arabia, is classed into four varieties, the two most distinctive being the “Shami” or Syrian, smoothcoated, but) with feathered ears and tail and slight feathering on the legs and between the toee; and the “Nejdi,’:’. a perfectly smooth variety with'no feathering.

ON HIS MASTER’S' SADDLE. In their desert .home Saluki puppies are cared for with the children, and the hound may share the luxury of his master’s tent, which is "denied to any other dog. He is often -carried on the front of his owner’s saddle, to rest and be readily available for spying game.

When the bitch has puppies visitors arrive in troops, their numbers varying according to the reputation of the mother dog. They flatter the owner an the hope of obtaining a puppy. When the puppies are three or four months old their education begins, and rate are driven out for them to catch. At this early age they are often trained with a young falcon, the puppy and “eyas” being educated together. At six months they are tried on hares and afterwards on young gazelles. / '

The dog can travel at over 43 milel an hour. The pursuit of the gazelle is generally undertaken with the aid of a

hawk, and is a favourite sport of tho B'edouin sheikhs and princes of the East. THE TIME OF CRUSADERS.

Salukis are said to have been brought into Europe by the Crusaders, and the portrait of Duke Henry of Saxony, known as “the Pious,” ancl an enthusiastic destroyer of infidels, is seen with o’ne of these hounds. Ho wears the pilgrim’s badge, the dog , bearing a similar design on his collar. ■ • The breed was unknown in England until IS9o, when a dog and a bitch pupoy were obtained by the Hon. Florence Amherst from the Bedouin tribe of Tahawr (in the district of Selia and Jsnmlia, Egypt). These two “Laam” (“a flash,” or liettor, perhaps, “Tlid swift glance of a lady’s eye”) arid “Ayeslia” (after the second wife of Mahomet), grew up to be of a puregolden colour, and were greatly admired. Later, the same owner obtained through friends in Alexandria from the Beni Hasan tribe, a bitch golden in colour marked with white, named “V-alda,” also a dog*from Bethlehem, and a pair from Houran where the Druses live in the Lejae. British officers returning from service in the East have at various times taken Salukis to England. The Saluki’s coat is soft and silky, with slight feather woolly to shoulder and thighs, and he often- his slight feather on legs and back of thighs. The smooth variety is the same, but its coat is without feathering. The colours are white, cream, fawn, golden, red, or wliite-black-nnd-tnn, and the height is from 23 to 28 inches, tho weight being about 421 b,