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THE DOMESDAY BOOK OF DOGS

Dalmatian.

Damae canis, Daim-chien.

   There are perhaps many enigmas in the world of dogs such as just how many boat loads of dogs did manage to get shipwrecked in olden times or why has no breed of spaniel ever been recorded from Spain, but that most famous mystery of all "why are there no dalmatians in Dalmatia" appears to have been solved by Colonel David Hancock MBE.  As with the Alsatian the 'tian' part of the name may be a corruption of chien the French for dog, and daim is French for fallow deer.

  If the 'l' in Dalmatian were the normal silent 'l' that is found in many words following an 'a' or an 'o' to modify the sound of the preceding vowel, then the modern mispronunciation becomes immediately obvious.  Fallow deer in Latin would be damae; if there were a breed sometimes called the damae-chien and then the letter 'l' were added in, say, the sixteenth century to support the first 'a' then suddenly we have a recognisable name for a dog breed, 'dalmaechien'.  Not so much a Dalmatian as a dalmatian.

   Colonel Hancock points out that "early in the 17th century Gervase Markham in his Country Contentments (1631) recommends for hunting deer . . . 'the white hound, or the white with black spots or the white with some few liver spots'".  So it seems that up to the beginning of the seventeenth century there existed a spotted pack hound for hunting deer, known as the Daim-chien.  In France The Chiens Blancs du Roy (The King's White Hound) came in many colour morphs including white spotted with red, black or lemon.  From ancient drawings the White Hound appeared to be less like a scent hound in shape and more like a gaze hound, and the White Hound survived at least until 1715.

   The colonel's research is far-reaching, from Ancient Greek texts to the present day.  He supplies examples of many hound breeds that sported spots and were expected to run with horses.

Romancing The Breed

Heritage of the dog, Colonel David Hancock, 1990.
Nimrod Press Limited, Alton, Hants GU34 1DL.

Hounds In Old Days, 1979
Sir Walter Gilbey, Bart.  Appendix A.
Spur Publications, Surrey, England

Dailywritingtips
Venqax, January 29, 2014

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