268 CARNIVORA. 



and without a home, cut off from all companionship with man. But 

 even in this neglected state they exhibit a great capacity for organiza- 

 tion ; they divide the town into districts, and no dog can be tempted to 

 trespass on a district to which he does not belong ; each troop seems to 

 be under the command of a leader, whose position is recognized by all 

 the rest. Pierotti describes the dogs in Palestine to-day as ill-favored, 

 ill-scented, ill-conditioned beasts, but ready to respond to the slightest 

 advance and grateful for any kindness, exhibiting, under circumstances 

 of great social degradation, the true canine yearning after human society. 

 These outcast dogs, of course, have to get their living by devouring the 

 offal of the street. 



The question has been raised, " Is the dog a separate, independent 

 species, like the wolf, the jackal, or the fox?" Darwin discusses the 

 matter at considerable length, and comes to the conclusion that the 

 origin of the dog is to be looked for in the taming and crossing of various 

 species of Canid^ in various regions. Each race of mankind would train 

 and preserve the animals most suited to his wants, and this process of 

 selection continued for ages would account for all the varieties we 

 know. 



The oldest traditions, the most ancient monuments, show us the dog 

 already tamed. The records of the twelfth Egyptian dynasty, B. c. 3400, 

 exhibit several kinds of dogs, several of them resembling greyhounds, 

 or the Arabian boar-hound. The Assyrian monuments, B. c. 640, repre- 

 sent huge mastiffs. Homer describes Odysseus weeping over his old dog 

 Argus, that recognized him after twenty years of absence, when wife and 

 child and friend knew him not ; and in all European literature, from that 

 day to this, the dog holds an honored place. Socrates used to swear 

 " By the dog ! " Alexander the Great built a temple over the remains 

 of his favorite ; at Corinth a dog, Soter by name, was presented by the 

 city with a silver collar inscribed with the words, " Corinth's defender 

 and deliverer." A dog is one of the dramatis persona; in a play of Aris- 

 tophanes ; and who does not remember Launce and his dog Crab in 

 Shakespeare's "Two Gentlemen of Verona"? A still more important 

 role is played by the dog in the melodrama " The Dog of Montargis," 

 where he appears as a party in a Wager of Battle, and procures the 

 punishment of his master's murderer. 



Volumes have been written respecting the mental and moral qualities 

 of the dog. All dogs have good memories for time and place ; they 



