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standing, I should think, about twenty-two inches high, and with short hair. The last were more like wolves, and were of a yellow colour with black muzzles, and marks down the neck and back, one being a very handsome brute. They had rather rough hair. They run down and live upon the largest deer in the jungle, and, according to the accounts of native hunters, they adopt the following plan:They run by nose; and having made themselves acquainted with the presence of Sambur or other deer in the valley or jheel of the jungle, they separate, and lie in wait at the different passes from the ghat, crouching on the high ground above the paths taken by the deer. of the pack then go down and rouse the rushes up hill by one of the many paths. lies in waiting springs at his victim and fixes to his throat, and the others soon run into him. The Sambur or Elk, and the large Neelgai, are very formidable opponents to a dog, and constantly kill him with a single blow of the forefoot, splitting his skull open: nor, indeed, can any but large and powerful dogs, in packs, run into and kill either of these kind of deer, which are twice as heavy and powerful as the Red Deer of Scotland.

One or two Sambur, who

The dog who

"The natives have got an idea that these wild dogs attack and kill tigers, which is not at all probable. The idea has arisen from the fact of tigers that were known to be in certain jungles before the wild dogs came, leaving it after their arrival. This is accounted for by the game being so much alarmed at the presence of the wild dogs, and becoming so watchful from being constantly hunted by them, that the tigers find out that they cannot fall upon them. They thus

leave that part of the jungle for some other, where the deer have not been so much scared."

Colonel Walter Campbell states that "The wild dog of Southern India is a very fierce animal, about the size of a large pointer; of an uniform red or bright chestnut colour, with upright pointed ears, and a drooping bushy tail. They hunt in packs of from ten to thirty, and run mute. They are capable of pulling down almost any animal inhabiting the forest, and have even been known to attack men."

The Parsees of India hold the dog in much reverence. An officer of the Bombay army, whose opportunities for observation were considerable, tells me that when a Parsee dies suddenly, a dog is brought to the corpse, and if it licks the face of the deceased (which, by putting on a little ghee, is not difficult to manage), it is considered a sign of salvation. “This process occurred," says my informant, "at our own mess-room at Bhooj in Cutch, in 1827, when a Parsee mess-servant died sitting on the door-steps, almost in our presence. The messman was also a Parsee, and we saw the act in question; that is, the dog brought to lick the man's face. The body was carried from Bhooj to Cambay, to the 'Tower of Silence' there; a distance of two hundred miles." I am induced to believe this partiality for the canine species has been adopted by the Parsees since their intercourse with the Indians, because there is no animal more unclean with the Persians of the present day than the dog, 'Sug' being a common term of reproach or abuse with them. This may, however, arise from the present Persians being Mahommedans. The Parsee riots in Bombay in 1834 were occasioned by the orders given

to destroy the dogs. The Parsees objected, and tumults ensued. They caught all the dogs they could, and shipped them off to a desert island, where, wrung by the pangs of thirst and hunger, they devoured each other.

The ancient religion of light, which still shines after the lapse of so many centuries and annihilation of empires, is said to hold an exalted conception of the dog, and to have symbolized in him the principle of Good, and in the wolf the principle of Evil. This, and the passages in Genesis and Isaiah,-" Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf;" "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb," &c.,-prove how distinct has long been the character of these animals even in the East. And though the most remote of historical periods may be as nothing in comparison with the time required for such a change as the alteration of a species, yet the nature of these creatures has doubtless been totally opposed to each other during the recorded time of man.

The accompanying extract exhibits a few of the religious associations connected with the dog, and which, no doubt, research might widely extend.

"DOG-WORSHIP.'-Among the ancient Hebrews the dog was accounted an unclean animal, and looked upon with the utmost contempt. But among some ancient nations this sagacious and useful animal appears to have been an object of worship. Thus in 2 Kings xvii. 31, an idol of the Anites is mentioned under the name of Nibhaz, which the Hebrew commentators interpret as a barker, and they assert that this idol was made in the form of a dog. Traces of the ancient

1 Faiths of the World. By the Rev. J. Gardner, M.D. and M.A.

worship of an idol of the same kind have been discovered in Syria, even in modern times."

"One city built in Egypt was named 'Cynopolis, or the City of the Dog.' Sir Gardner Wilkinson, in his Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,' says, 'The Egyptians had several breeds of dogs, some solely used for the chase, others admitted into the parlour, or selected as the companions of their walks; and some, as at the present day, selected for their peculiar ugliness. All were looked upon with veneration, and the death of a dog was not only lamented as a misfortune, but was mourned by every member of the house in which it occurred.' The dog was probably held in all the greater veneration in Egypt as being the emblem of Sirius, or the dog-star, which, as soon as it has ascended above the horizon, proclaims the approaching flood of the Nile.

"Among the Hyperborean tribes, with whom the dog is reckoned a very valuable animal, it occupies a conspicuous place in their traditions, being considered, as for instance among the Esquimaux, according to the accounts given by Franklin and Parry, and other Arctic navigators, as the father of the human family. The Chippewayan Indians had a tradition that they were sprung from a dog; and hence they neither ate the flesh of that animal themselves, nor could they look with any other feeling than horror upon those nations who fed upon it. In all these cases, probably, the dog is the symbol of the sun. A strange notion prevails among the Greenlanders that an eclipse is caused by the sun being pursued by his brother the moon. Accordingly, when this phenomenon takes place, the women take the dogs by the ears,

VOL. I.

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believing that, as these animals existed before man was created, they must have a more certain presentiment of the future than he has, and, therefore, if they do not cry when their ears are pulled, it is an infallible sign that the world is about to be destroyed.

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"The inhabitants of Japan have a superstitious regard for dogs. Thus we learn from Picart, in his Religious Ceremonies of all Nations,' The Emperor who sat on the throne when Kaempfer resided in Japan, was so extravagantly fond of them, that there has been a greater number of them in that kingdom ever since his reign (if we may depend on the veracity of this traveller), than in any other nation in the whole world. Every street is obliged to maintain a fixed and determinate number of them. They are quartered upon the inhabitants, and, in case of sickness, they are obliged to nurse and attend them. When they die, they are obliged to inter them in a decent manner in the mountains and hills peculiarly appropriated for the interment of the people. It is looked upon as a capital crime not only to kill them, but barely to insult and treat them ill; and no one but the legal proprietor is allowed so much as to correct any of them. All this reverence and respect is owing to a celestial constellation which the Japanese call the Dog, under the influence whereof the aforesaid Emperor of Japan was born. An old traveller gives an account of a peculiar custom which existed among the ancient Guebres or Fire-worshippers of Persia, and which shows that they held dogs in high religious estimation:"Before they expose a corpse to the birds of prey they lay him decently on the ground, whilst some particular friend of his beats the hoof all round about the neighbouring villages,

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