HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



245 



a piked snout ; but the braine decreaseth and in- 

 creaseth with the moon. There is no commissure 

 or seame in his scull (like as in a mans), but it is a 

 continued bone without separation inward or out- 

 ward.* 



" The louder and shriller voice of a Dogge is called 

 barking, the lower and stiller is called whining or 

 fawning. It was a monstrous thing that a Dogge 

 should speake and a serpent barke, as it is beleeved 

 in antiquity both came to passe, when Tarquinius 

 was driuen out of his kingdom. It is not cause- 



lesse that the barking of Dogges hath attributed unto 



I 



holy actions, and so ought the eies and ears of a 

 Prophet be attendant upon heavenly things. The 

 spleene because a Dog hath little or no spleene. 

 and therof commeth his madnes and death whereof 

 also it commeth that the seruants which have charge 

 of Dogges being with them in their sickness and 

 latter end for the most part prove splenaticke. 

 Smelling, neezing, and Laughing, because the 

 spleenatike can do more of all these, but of this 

 more afterward." 



The Rev. Topsell concludes his account of the 

 Village Dogge or Housekeeper by relating the fol- 



Fig. 201. The Lama. 



it divers qualities, as for a man to dreame of the 

 same presageth some treasonable harme by enemies, 

 so likewise if they fawne and claw vpon a man. 

 . "The Egyptians signifie three thinges by a Dog, 

 a Scribe, a Prophet, a spleene, smelling, laughing; 

 neezing. A Scribe because a Dog is silent more than 

 he barketh, so must a perfect scribe meditate more 

 than he speaketh, for to barke at euery one were to 

 pleasure none, and to speake continually were a signe 

 of madnes. Again, a Prophet because a Dogge 

 doth most eagerly behold and admire constantly all 



* If the writer had taken the trouble to examine a skull, he 

 would have found that cranial sutures were present. 



lowing anecdote, the truth of which is vouched for 

 by A ntonius Sc/inebergerns, an authority with whom 

 I regret to say I am unacquainted. 



"In a Church in Cracouia, dedicated to the 

 Virgin Mary, wherein euery night are an assembly of 

 dogs which unto this day (saith the Author) meete 

 voluntarily at an appointed houre for the custody of 

 the Temple and those ornaments which are preserved 

 therein against theifes and robbers, and if it fortune 

 any of the dog Dogges be negligent and slacke at the 

 houre aforesaide, then will he bark about the Church 

 until he be let in, but his fellows take punishment 

 of him [and fall on him, biting and rending his 



