Page 43 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 4 3

The northern Sudan, the Nile cataracts, i.e. Nubia, are the area where the Kushites had
their empire and from where hunting dogs were paid as tribute to the Egyptians, which
we can understand in Rekhmire's tribute scene. And we also have a concrete idea of the
type of hunting dogs in the famous dog mummy, namely in the dog mummy KV50 in the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo [26].

The further southward expansion of dogs was by the Bantu-speaking, Iron Age groups

who originally came from Lake Chad.

Gallant reports that the different types of Africanis are kept as a land breed, working with
people for all kinds of tasks. As a hunting dog or as a herding dog, as a guard dog or as a
companion. This is the original type of dog, which has undergone little or no
specialisation through selective breeding. Nevertheless, we also find types that are not far

removed from the Azawakh or the Sloughi. These types are therefore more the result of
climatic conditions than of selective breeding for certain characteristics.

A group of young Zulu before hunting with their dogs. “The dogs are our eyes and ears!”
Gallant, in The Story of the African Dog p.25 © Edith Gallant