2nd S. VII. May 28. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



431 



390 B. c. to the period of the Empire. The cus- 

 tom of carrying round a figure of Guy Fawkes on 

 the 5th of November has now lasted in England 

 above 250 years ; and its maintenance cannot be 

 ascribed to the influence of written history : it 

 has doubtless been perpetuated by a genuine 

 popular tradition. 



It is true that the dog was sometimes slain, 

 both by the Greeks and Roman?, as a peculiar 

 sacrifice during the dog-days, from a fanciful con- 

 nexion with the dog-star; and also as a victim 

 for purposes of lustration. Thus the Cynophontis 

 was an Argive festival celebrated at the period of 

 the dog-days, at which dogs were killed (Athen. 

 iii. p. 99.) ; the day and the festival at which the 

 Argives killed the dogs is likewise stated to have 

 been called Amis, for which name a fabulous 

 cause was assigned. (Conon. Na?^r. 20. ; ^lian, 

 Nat. An. xii. 34.) Plutarch states that it was a 

 universal Greek custom to kill a dog as a purifi- 

 catory sacrifice : he adds that puppies were of- 

 fered to the goddess Hecate, together with other 

 rites of lustration ; and that persons who required 

 purification were touched with puppies — a purifi- 

 catory rite which was called TrepiaKvAaKKrfxSs (Q. R. 

 68.) In another place Plutarch states that the 

 ancient Greeks did not regard the dog as a clean 

 animal; for which reason it was never sacrificed 

 to the Olympian gods, and was only used as an 

 expiatory victim in the rites of the infernal god- 

 dess Hecate. He adds that the Lacedsemonians 

 sacrificed puppies to Mars ; and that the Boeotians 

 performed a public purification by cutting a dog 

 in two portions, and by passing between them. 

 {lb. Ill ) According to Pausanias each troop of 

 the youths at Sparta sacrificed a young dog to 

 Mars, believing that the most courageous of ani- 

 mals would be an acceptable offering to the most 

 courageous of gods. These were the only Greeks 

 known to Pausanias who sacrificed this animal, 

 except the Colophonians, who sacrificed a black 

 puppy to Hecate. Both at Sparta and Colophon 

 these sacrifices took place at night ; which indi- 

 cated that the worship was considered as relating 

 to the terrestrial gods (iii. 14. 9.) The sacrifice 

 of a dog was so characteristic of the rites of He- 

 cate that she is called by Lycophron, v. 77., the 

 " dog-slaying goddess." 



At Rome, dogs were sacrificed at the Luper- 

 calia, a lustratory festival (Plut. Q. R. 68. 111., 

 Romul. 21.) ; the entrails of a dog were also 

 offered to the goddess Robigo, in order to avert 

 her wrath from the corn. The reason of this 

 custom is thus delivered in the Fasti of Ovid : — 



" Est canis (Icarium dicunt) quo sidere moto 

 Tosta sitit tellus, praecipiturque .seges. 

 Pro cane sidereo canis liic imponitur ara; ; 

 Et quare pereat, nil nisi nomen habet." 



iv. 905—943. 



There are two articles in Festus which allude 



to the sacrifices of dogs at Rome for appeasing 

 the anger of the dog- star : — 



" Catularia porta Romae dicta est, quia non longe ab e^ 

 ad placandum canicul.ie sidus frugibus iiiimicum rufje 

 canes immolabantur, ut fruges flavescentes ad maturitatem 

 perducerentur." — P. 45. 



" Kutilse canes, id est, non procul a rubro colore, ira- 

 molantur, ut ait Ateius Capito, canario sacrificio pro 

 frugibus deprecaudie sasvitiaa causd sideris caniculae." 



P. 285. 



Sacrifices of dogs also occurred in the worship 

 of the goddess Mana Genita and of the Lares, 

 which deities were of the terrestrial or infernal 

 class. (See Plut. Q. R. 51, 52. ; Plin. xxix. 14.? 

 Ovid, Fast.\. 137—142.) 



These testimonies suffice to explain the nature 

 of the religious rites in which the sacrifice of a 

 dog was introduced. The dog was sometimes a 

 symbolical offering to the dog- star : sometimes a 

 victim suited to the god of war ; and sometimes, 

 as an unclean animal, he was devoted to the in- 

 fernal deities. The annual crucifixion of a dog, 

 at Rome, which was said to be a commemoration 

 of his failure to give alarm at the assault of the 

 Capitol, has no affinity with any of these rites ; 

 and the singular custom of carrying round a goose 

 in an ornamented litter is not explained by saying 

 that this bird was sometimes sacred to Juno. A 

 slaughter of dogs still took place at Rome every 

 year on the 3d of August in the sixth century 

 after Christ, and was considered as commemora- 

 tive of their omission to save the Capitol : at that 

 time, however, some persons thought that this 

 custom was intended as a preservative against ca- 

 nine madness ; while others believed that it was 

 designed for the benefit of the numerous sick 

 persons, who, during the unwholesome season of 

 autumn ("autumnusque gravis, Libitinaa qua?stus 

 acerbse," Horat. ii. 6. 19., " letifer autumnus," 

 Juven. iv. 56.), would be incommoded by the 

 barking of the dogs which prowled about the 

 streets. (See Lydus de Mens. iii. 40. ; De Mag. 

 i. 50. ; De Ostentis, c. 7.) L. 



THE OLD COUNTESS OF 1>ESM0ND. 



If you and your readers are willing to hear 

 more of the old Countess of Desmond, I can add 

 something in corroboration of what has been told 

 by your correspondents W. S. G. and Hugo. The 

 first Duchess of Leinster, born in 1731, was aunt 

 to my present wife. The Duchess received from 

 her mother-in-law, the widow of the 19th Earl of 

 Kildare, the following as a family tradition (the 

 Kildares and Desmonds having been connected in 

 former days). The father of this 19th Earl was 

 born in 1616, only eleven years after the death of 

 the old Countess in question ; and he had known 

 an elderly lady who had been acquainted with her. 

 The Countess was fond of telling of her having 



