Ἔστι δέ τι σκυλάκων γένος ἄλκιμον ἰχνευτήρων,
Βαιόν, ἀτὰρ μεγάλης ἀντάξιον ἔμμεν᾿ ἀοιδῆς·
Τοὺς τράφεν ἄγρια φῦλα Βρετανῶν αἰολονώτων·
Αὐτὰρ ἐπικλήδην σφὰς Ἀγασσαίους ὀνόμηναν.
Τῶν ἤτοι μέγεθος μὲν ὁμοίϊον οὐτιδανοῖσι
Λίχνοις οἰκιδίοισι τραπεζήεσσι κύνεσσι,
Γυρόν, ἀσαρκότατον, λασιότριχον, ὄμμασι νωθές,
Ἀλλ᾿ ὀνύχεσσι πόδας κεκορυθμένον ἀργαλέοισι
Καὶ θαμινοῖς κυνόδουσιν ἀκαχμένον ἰοφόροισι·
Ῥίνεσι δ᾿ αὖτε μάλιστα πανέξοχός ἐστιν Ἀγασσεὺς
Καὶ στιβίῃ πανάριστος· ἐπεὶ καὶ γαῖαν ἰόντων
Ἴχνιον εὑρέμεναι μέγα δὴ σοφός, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν
Ἴδμων ἠερίην μάλα σημήνασθαι ἀϋδμήν[1].
A small bold breed and steady to the game
Next claims the tribute of peculiar fame!
Train'd by the tribes on Britain's wildest shore
Thence they their title of Agasses bore.
Small as the race that useless to their lord
Bask on the hearth and: bag about the board;
Crook limbed and black-eyed, all their frame appears
Flanked with no flesh and; bristled nough with hairs;
But shod each foot with hardest claws is seen,
The sole's kind armour an the beaten green;
But fenced each, jaw with closest teeth is found.
And death sits instant on the inflicted wound,
Far o'er the rest he quests the secret prey,
And sees each track wind opening to his ray:
Far o'er the rest he feels each scent that blows
Court the live nerve and thrill along the nose.
This is a very minute description of a British dog. And those two particular strokes in the description, the crookedness of its limbs and the leanness of its body, clearly appropriate the account to our present terrier".
To these we may subjoin another breed of our dogs, which items to have been equally an original inhabitant of the island
- ↑ A Gast or A Gass (as Kist, the same word, is also Kis) signifies merely The Dog.
