ON THE NAME OF AN EGYPTIAN DOG

One of the dogs on the Tablet of Antew-Àa II bore the name of T jl^^<:r=>'^^, which D- Birch explains somewhat doubtfuUy /)/e<i or spotted Sphinx^. The word bas a foreign look, and recalls immediatelv to the mind the Berberian name of the greyhound, O- !^m, abaïkour\ with this difïerence, however, that O-i^m abaïkour is commonly used for the whole species, ^Yhile y j!^^<rr>-^^ abakarou, is the personal name of only one individual dog. To be called ¥ J| ^^<=>'^ abakarou, a dog needed not

really be of Libyan Ï3reed : King Antew-Âa, or his Ivlaster of the Hounds, took a fancy for the strange-sounding name, and applied it without much troubling himself for its true meaning. Thus, in France, where some people are fond of giving their dogs foreign names without any référence either to breed or colour, I hâve known a setter called familiarly Pug, and several white curs who enjoyed innocently the title of Black.

1. PubUé dans les Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archœolofjij, t. V, p. 122-128. La traduction des autres noms a été donnée par Maspero dans le texte de Mariette, Monuments dircrs, 1889, p. 15, puis par Daressy, Rcmarquos et Xotcs, § XVllI, dans le Recueil de Travaux, 1889, t. XI, p. 79-80; l'interprétation de Daressy a été discutée par Basset, les Chiens du roi Antef, p. 87-92.

2. See Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archœology, t. IV, p. 181.