Bush Things

The Basenji is a smallish, chestnut-brown African dog, sturdy, compact and bony. Catlike, it slinks, catlike washes its face with its paws. The name means ''bush thing." Unique characteristic of the Basenji is that it does not bark; it utters only one noise, "GROOO!" Breeders be lieve its lineage can be traced back to the Twelfth Egyptian Dynasty. Since then countless generations of Africans, legend says, have succeeded in breeding out its bark, for the sake of silence not in the home but on the hunt.

In the Belgian Congo the Basenji is highly domesticated, plays with the children, eats with the family, hunts with a gourd full of pebbles tied around his neck so he can be followed in the jungle.

Year ago a Mrs. Olivia Burn brought from Africa the first Basenjis England had ever seen. Last February she exhibited them at Cruft's Coronation Dog Show in London and caused something of a sensation.

This week B. Hamilton Rogers, vice president of an organization called Dogs Inc., arrived in the U. S. with two barkless, but playful Basenji puppies. He in tends to show them and breed them, hopes to introduce the Basenji to recognized aristocracy of pedigreed dogs.