The Crozier Pharaohs

To Ishma and Crispin

Acknowledgement

The author gives grateful thanks to Dr Monica Still, hon. secretary of the Pharaoh Hounds Club, for her invaluable information regarding these splendid dogs.

Doggerel

The hounds in this my story

Are overmatched in glory

By those whose names they carry,

Yet here Nile gods may tarry.

Isis, Osiris, falcon-headed Horus,

Nephthys, Anubis, Amon, bay in chorus.

Gods named these hounds, for better or for worse,

For dog, heaven bless us! — god is…in reverse.

1

Mainly For Dog-Fanciers

^ »

I’ve been looking them up while I was in London, ’ said Laura.

‘Friends of yours?’ asked Dame Beatrice.

‘No. I’ve never met them.’ Perceiving a look of innocent enquiry on her employer’s yellow countenance, Laura hastened to add, ‘Oh, I see what you mean. In saying I’ve been looking them up, I was referring to a spot of research I’ve done into the history of those hounds the Rant sisters told us they keep. Very interesting. Do you know that the breed has remained true to type for more than five thousand years?’

‘Dear me! Then the Pharaoh hound must be the oldest domesticated dog in the world. I see that you are bursting with your newly acquired knowledge. Share it with me while I get on with my knitting. ’

‘What’s it supposed to be?’ Laura looked critically at the shapeless mess of wool which cascaded from Dame Beatrice’s wooden knitting needles.

‘Well,’ said its creator, regarding her handiwork with toleration, ‘it began as a pullover, but it seems to have lost its way. ’

‘Haven’t you got a pattern?’

‘No. I hoped my innate genius would suffice. ’

‘Who is the pullover meant to fit?’

‘I have no idea. I thought I would knit it and then bestow it when I saw what size it turned out to be. ’

‘One way of doing things, I suppose.’

‘Tell me about these Pharaoh hounds. They will distract my mind from this disastrous attempt at improvisation.’

‘Don’t worry. I’ll take it back to its stitches of origin after dinner and knit it up again to fit Rory. He’s the only one of your relations who would be seen dead in that colour. Tell you about the Rant Pharaohs? Right.’

Laura’s account of the hobby of the Rant sisters was given with conviction and enthusiasm. The Pharaoh hounds came originally from Egypt, as, with such a name, they could scarcely fail to do. They were the hunting dogs of Egyptian kings and nobles, although there was a bas-relief with hieroglyphics from the reign of Amenemhet the First which indicated that wealthy farmers used the hounds as herd dogs for cattle. The picture showed a man in a rather inadequate lower garment followed by an alert-looking dog. The man, flourishing a stout stick, and the dog, with tail in air, were advancing towards two fighting bulls which had managed to get their horns interlocked. The dog had a collar with two loose ends which reminded Laura (she said) of the bands which eighteenth-century clergymen used to wear. ‘I say,’ said Laura, breaking off, ‘I wouldn’t do any more of that knitting until you’ve let me see to it. The length of it is beginning to make me think of Eternity, a concept I can’t absorb.’

‘I feel the same about what the astronomers tell us of Outer Space,’ said Dame Beatrice, obediently laying aside her knitting.

‘Time and Space, and we’re back to Einstein, I suppose,’ said Laura. ‘Do you think jet lag comes into it somewhere?’

‘Go on about your visit to London, ’ said her employer. ‘You appear to have filled in your time well.’

‘Oh, the Pharaoh hounds, yes. Of course I did see quite a lot of Gavin while I was there. ’

‘It has always intrigued me that you call your husband by his surname, even to his face.’

‘Well, Robert is the rather facetious name which used to be given by students and other semi-educated persons to the bobby on the beat. As you know, Ian is Gavin’s other name, but I don’t use it for fear of confusing him with my brother. That’s all there is to it. As for my researches, there were hieroglyphics with the picture of the farmer,