Page 95 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 9 5

The young Sloughis learn from the older ones, this is the “chain” that Raouf Ochi
describes.

In Daumas‘ book “Horses of the Sahara”, Abd El-Kader comments: “Second part. Hunting
in the Sahara. ... The Arabs hunt on foot and on horseback. If you want to hunt a hare, you

have to take a hound with you. These hounds are called Slougui, from Slouguia, a place
where they are born and, as is assured, from a mating of wolves and dogs (Daumas'
reference to Buffon).

The dog lives twenty, the bitch twelve years. Hounds that catch up with a fleeing gazelle are

quite rare, most of them catching neither the hare nor the gazelle, even if they come up close
in front of them. The usual object of their pursuit is the Bekeur-el-ouhach, which they
generally seize by the hind knee and throw to the ground, sometimes seizing it by the neck
and holding it until the hunter arrives.”

Abd El-Kader also emphasises the usefulness of the hound, the Sloughi, in hunting hares;
indeed, hunting hares is unthinkable without carrying a Sloughi! However, not all Sloughis
are capable of catching a hare or a gazelle. The description of how the Sloughis catch a
“Bekeur” (antelope) is very reminiscent of the ancient Egyptians' depiction with the
tesems of the old type.

We know the myth that the Sloughis come from Slouguia*. We know too from the Salukis,
who are said to come from Saluk or Seleukia, a city named after the Seleucids. That is not
very credible.

However, the mating of wolf and dog is an image that we have already heard in

Marouane's remark (Sloughi Review No.6) that the Sloughi “is an original animal”! The
Sloughi therefore still has a lot of the wild, original type of dog. Here, too, we must say
goodbye to the idea that domestication has made significant contributions to the nature
of the dog. Rather, we must realise that the original type of dog has a lot in common with
natural conditions and that we are the beneficiaries of these valuable gifts, i.e. that they
did not come into being thanks to our superior selection efforts!

The idea of selection also goes back in essential parts to Gregor Mendel, whose
Mendelian rules describe the inheritance process for traits whose expression is
determined by only one gene at a time. He published the rules in 1865/1866, but at first
they were hardly noticed and were only “rediscovered” in 1900, long after his death.

*Editor’s note: there is a town of Slouguia in Tunisia.