DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 263 



the chase, in caring for his flocks and home, and as com- 

 panion of his table and fireside. The Bushmen of Australia, 

 the Esquimaux of the Arctic, the Indians of the prairie and 

 pampas, the cannibals of the scattered Pacific Islands as 

 well as the Caucasians of the world's great capitals have 

 their dog companions. And as is inevitable under such 

 many and different conditions and civilization stages of hu- 

 man existence the kinds of dogs are many and very different. 

 How many dog races and types there now are I do not know; 

 hundreds, at least. There are many long books filled with 

 the descriptions and illustrations of these manifold varieties, 

 from the tiny, toy dogs of Paris, that a lady can carry in her 

 muff, to the great Danes and St. Bernards that stand three 

 feet high and weigh one hundred and fifty pounds. 



The origin of all these dog races is not to be found in any 

 one wild species of doglike animal but in several. These 

 wild ancestors of the dogs are certain wolves and jackals of 

 various lands. Dogs are descended from at least seven 

 such wild species, namely the jackal (Can-is an re us) of west- 

 ern Asia, the landga (Canis pallipcs) of India, the jackal 

 wolf (Canis a nth us) of northeast Africa, the walgie (Canis 

 simcnsis) of Ethiopia, the black Thibet wolf (Canis niger) 

 of Thibet, and the coyote (Canis la trans) and dun-gray wolf 

 (Canis occidentalis) of North America. 



The house cats, on the contrary, as various and as widely 

 distributed as they are, seem to be all descended from a 

 single wild species. This is the dun wild cat (Felis- mani- 

 culata) of northeast Africa. All of the present races of 

 house cats trace their lineage back to Egypt. That the 

 Egyptians were much given to the possession and care of 

 cats the numerous cat mummies of their graves show. 

 Cats were a sacred animal for them under the special pro- 

 tection of the Goddess Bast, a goddess introduced into 

 Egypt by Semitic influence. 



The horses of modern times can be traced back to two 



