822 Origines %oologic(S^ 



calling his wife a brazen-faced b , huoyi adees. This may 



have originated in the East, where the dog is held in abhorrence, 

 as the common scavenger of the streets. " Him that dieth in 

 the city, the dogs shall eat; and him thf^t dieth in the fields, 

 shall the fowls of the air eat;" was said of Jeroboam and 

 his family (1 Kings, xiv. 11.), of Baasha, (1 Kings xvi. 4.), a 

 people about to be punished for their offences by famine and 

 pestilence. A ravenous desire for food is called a canine 

 appetite : and of a foul and gluttonous feeder it is said, that 

 hungry dogs will eat dirty pudding. By the Israelites he was 

 accounted so abominable, that, in the Levitical law, the price 

 of a dog was forbidden to be' offered in sacrifice. He has 

 also been ever the miserable victim of most cruel experiments, 

 by the anatomist and the philosopher : and when a tax was 

 laid on his head, a general massacre of the species took place. 

 By the Egyptians he was an object of adoration, as the repre- 

 sentative of one of the celestial signs ; and by the Indians, as 

 one of the sacred forms of their deities. 



" The Egyptians worshipp'd dogs, and for 



Their faith made internecine war." Hudibras. * 



The canicular or dog days are so called, not because dogs 

 are at that season apt to run mad, but from the heliacal 

 rising of Sirius, or the dogstar, as typical of the season of 

 greatest heat, or wane of the summer. 



In moonlight nights dogs, as the emblems of vigilance, are 

 said to be more than usually watchful, and to " bay the moon ;" 

 and are supposed to have a sense of the odour of mortal dis- 

 solution, and to howl before the death of one of the family. 

 They perspire by the tongue ; and in hot countries, as in Africa, 

 die if they be suddenly plunged into cold water. The young, 

 or whelps, of the dog, as is the case with all quadrupeds which 

 bring forth litters, and have the feet divided into many seg- 

 ments or toes, are born blind, and so continue for ten or 

 twelve days ; and at this time are probably deaf, as the valves 

 of the ears are closed till the eyes are opened. 



Among other useful purposes, he is harnessed, and draws 

 a peculiar kind of carriage, called a sledge, over the snow in 

 the colder regions of the north. In Holland he is fastened 

 in pairs to a small waggon [in Canada to carts, see VI. 511.], 

 and draws vegetables and other light substances to the market. 

 In Amsterdam there are regular dog ordinaries, where, as 

 soon as he is unharnessed after his journey, he receives a 

 small coin from his master, which he takes in his mouth to a 

 well known establishment of this kind, and in exchange for 

 his money is provided with a certain portion of meat. And 



