The Dog | Page 6

dog, of the Newfoundland
breed, that we had on board the Hecla, was also in the habit of
remaining out with the wolves for a day or two together, and we
frequently watched them keeping company on the most friendly terms."
(Page 136, 1st voyage.)
[In volume 1st, page 111, of the Menageries, it is stated that Mr.
Wombwell exhibited in October, 1828, two animals from a cross
between the wolf and the domestic dog, which had been bred in that
country. They were confined in the same den with a female setter, and
were likely again to multiply the species. Mr. Daniel remarks that Mr.
Brook, famous for his menagerie, turned a wolf to a Pomeranian bitch
at heat; the congress was immediate, and, as usual between the dog and
bitch, ten puppies were the produce. These animals strongly resembled
their sire both in appearance and disposition, and one of them being let
loose at a deer, instantly caught at the animal's throat and killed it. (See
Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. i, page 14.)--L.]
It may appear singular that in both the Old Testament and the New the
dog was spoken of almost with abhorrence. He ranked among the
unclean beasts. The traffic in him and the price of him were considered
as an abomination, and were forbidden to be offered in the sanctuary in
the discharge of any vow. [2]
One grand object in the institution of the Jewish ritual was to preserve
the Israelites from the idolatry which at that time prevailed among
every other people. Dogs were held in considerable veneration by the

Egyptians, from whose tyranny the Israelites had just escaped. Figures
of them appeared on the friezes of most of the temples, [3] and they
were regarded as emblems of the Divine Being. Herodotus, speaking of
the sanctity in which some animals were held by the Egyptians, says
that the people of every family in which a dog died, shaved
themselves--their expression of mourning--and he adds, that "this was a
custom existing in his own time." [4]
The cause of this attachment to and veneration for the dog is, however,
explained in a far more probable and pleasing way than many of the
fables of ancient mythology. The prosperity of Lower Egypt, and
almost the very subsistence of its inhabitants, depended on the annual
overflowing of the Nile; and they looked for it with the utmost anxiety.
Its approach was announced by the appearance of a certain
star--SIRIUS. As soon as that star was seen above the horizon, they
hastened to remove their flocks to the higher ground, and abandoned
the lower pastures to the fertilizing influence of the stream. They hailed
it as their guard and protector; and, associating with its apparent
watchfulness the well-known fidelity of the dog, they called it the
"dog-star," and they worshipped it. It was in far later periods and in
other countries that the appearance of the dog-star was regarded as the
signal of insufferable heat or prevalent disease.
One of the Egyptian deities--Anubis--is described as having the form
and body of a man, but with a dog's head. These were types of sagacity
and fidelity.
["Who knows not that infatuate Egypt finds Gods to adore in brutes of
basest kinds? This at the crocodile's resentment quakes, While that
adores the ibis, gorged with snakes! And where the radiant beam of
morning rings On shattered Memnon's still harmonious strings; And
Thebes to ruin all her gates resigns, Of huge baboon the golden image
shines! To mongrel curs infatuate cities bow, And cats and fishes share
the frequent vow!"
Juvenal, 'Sat. xv'.--Badham's Trans.--L.]
In Ethiopia, not only was great veneration paid to the dog, but the

inhabitants used to elect a dog as their king. He was kept in great state,
and surrounded by a numerous train of officers and guards. When he
fawned upon them, he was supposed to be pleased with their
proceedings: when he growled, he disapproved of the manner in which
their government was conducted. These indications of his will were
implicitly obeyed, or rather, perhaps, dictated.
[Among the many strange and wonderful things mentioned by Pliny as
being discovered in Africa, is a people called Ptoembati or
Ptremphanae, whose principal city is Aruspi, where they elect a dog for
their king and obey him most religiously, being governed entirely by
the different motions of his body, which they interpret according to
certain signs. (See Pliny, lib. vi, c. xxx.)--L.]
Even a thousand years after this period the dog was highly esteemed in
Egypt for its sagacity and other excellent qualities; for, when
Pythagoras, after his return from Egypt, founded a new sect in Greece,
and at Croton, in southern Italy, he taught, with the Egyptian
philosophers, that, at the death of the body, the soul