556 DIFFERENT USES FOR THE DOG. 



races are placed. The habits of an Esquimaux and a Hot- 

 tentot could not possibly be similar. But let us take some 

 act which is common to many races, and is susceptible of 

 being accomplished in several ways. For instance, most 

 savages live in part on the flesh of birds; how is this ob- 

 tained ? Generally with bows and arrows ; but while the 

 Australians catch birds with the hand, or kill them with the 

 simple spear or the boomerang, the Euegians have both the 

 sling and the bow, while the Esquimaux use a complex spear 

 with several points, or a projectile which consists of a number 

 of walrus-teeth fastened together by short pieces of string, 

 and thus forming a kind of bolas. The northern tribes visited 

 by Kane practised a different method. They caught large 

 numbers of birds, especially little auks, in small nets, resem- 

 bling landing-nets, with long ivory handles. Yet this very 

 people were entirely ignorant of fishing.* 



Take, again, the use made of the dog. At first, probably, 

 the dog and the man hunted together ;( the cunning of the 

 one supplemented the speed of the other, and they shared the 

 produce of their joint exertions. Gradually mind asserted its 

 pre-eminence over matter, and the man became master. Then 

 the dog was employed in other ways, less congenial to his 

 nature. The Esquimaux forced him to draw the sledge ; the 

 Chinook kept him for the sake of his wool ; the South Sea 

 Islanders, having no game, bred the dog for food ; the Chonos 

 Indians taught him to fish ; where tribes became shepherds, 

 their dogs became shepherds also ; finally, it is recorded by 

 Pliny that in ancient times troops of dogs were trained to 

 serve in war. Even the ox, though less versatile than the 

 dog, has been used for the first and the two last of these pur- 

 poses. 



Kane, Arctic Explorations, t The low American Wood In- 

 vol. ii. pp. 203, 243. dians, however, used the dog rather 



as a watch-dog than as a hound. 



