Page 98 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 9 8

“Lévrier”, bronze ca. 1870 by Alfred Dubucand 1828-1894, was a pupil of
Antoine-Louis Barye, who around the same time produced a bronze of
his “Lévrier d'Algerie” named "Tom" as a model. It is therefore obvious
that it is Tom, the Algerian sighthound, i.e. a Sloughi. Dubucand was
known for his anatomically correct animal figures. With his teacher
Barye, a change in aesthetics was introduced in Napoleonic times. From
allegorical representation to a naturalistic approach. So we have here a
very probably correct representation of a Sloughi from about 1870.

But let's see what Henri Lhote tells us from the 1930s and 1940s about the Azawakhs*, as
we call them today.

Henri Lhote describes the hunting habits of the Tuareg, a Berber people consisting of
several tribes living in the central western Sahara, from his observations in the 1930s and
1940s. At that time, they still lived in a very primitive way, and only in some places did
they have rifles that were also used for hunting. He describes in detail various hunting
techniques, trapping, the use of poison, hunting with and without dogs. Obviously,

however, the dogs are not so much in the center of attention as was the case with the
Sloughis throughout North Africa.

*Editor’s note: the name Azawakh was given in 1981 when the breed was recognized by the FCI. It is the name
of a valley in Mali.