Page 4 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Special Edition 3

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W
FOREWORD
BY M.-DOMINIQUE CRAPON DE CAPRONA - USA
Many years ago, when eBay started in 1995,
I met online with an Austrian man who was
selling old magazines on that site. I asked
him if he could look for me for anything
having to do with Sloughis. Over the years
he sold me many such pages, some with
show results or club activities and a few
with texts about Sloughis.
Most were in French, but several of these
pages were in Dutch. I do not know Dutch;
I can only get a general idea of the content
because I speak German, but not the
details. I bought them anyway as they were
part of a package, thinking that maybe at
some point I could get them translated.
Better they should be with me than lost.
Some 20 years went by and these pages sat
forgotten carefully tucked away in a folder.
When I started with Els Siebel to go back in
time with the old Dutch Sloughi Studbook I
suddenly remembered these pages. Who
else than my long time Dutch friend Els
Siebel would be interested? I scanned the
pages for her, and Els responded by
sending me her translations of them. What
a fantastic treat!
The first of these Dutch texts is a well-
researched portrait of a predominant figure
in the European Sloughi scene in the early
1900s. It is none other than August Le Gras.
A fascinating character indeed!
0 4
It is followed by texts that give the title of
this issue “Time Capsules”. Texts
expressing the concerns of people at the
time, their perceptions with the mind set of
the colonialism era, and their
understanding, or lack thereof, of the
Sloughi.
These Dutch texts are followed by two
French texts that I translated. These
express the worry of acclimating Sloughis
to European climate, and a longer text
shows us the frustration at the lack of
information about this breed and the need
to do something about it.
Please keep in mind that Els and I
translated old texts. The languages and the
ways of expressing oneself have changed
overtime. We however think it is part of the
history of the breed in Europe, even if the
wording may appear awkward at times. As
translators we had to respect the style.
Wishing good reading.