Chap. 61] DOGS. 315 



when in heat. The first two litters they look upon as too savage 

 to be reared, but they bring up the third. 



The Gauls do the same with the wolf and the dog ; 18 and 

 their packs of hounds have, each of them, one of these dogs, 

 which acts as their guide and leader. This dog they follow 

 in the chase, and him they carefully obey ; for these animals 

 have even a notion of subordination among themselves. It is 

 asserted that the dogs keep running when they drink at the 

 Nile, for fear of becoming a prey to the voracity of the 

 crocodile. 19 When Alexander the Great was on his Indian 

 expedition, he was presented by the king of Albania with a 

 dog of unusual size ; being greatly delighted with its noble 

 appearance, he ordered bears, and after them wild boars, and 

 then deer, to be let loose before it ; but the dog lay down, and 

 regarded them with a kind of immoveable contempt. The 

 noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggish- 

 ness thus manifested by an animal of such vast bulk, and he 

 ordered it to be killed. The report of this reached the king, 

 who accordingly sent another dog, and at the same time sent 

 word that its powers were to be tried, not upon small animals, 

 but upon the lion or the elephant ; adding, that he had had 

 originally but two, and that if this one were put to death, the 

 race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay, procured a 

 lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces. He 

 then ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he 

 more delighted with any spectacle ; for the dog, bristling up 

 its hair all over the body, began by thundering forth a loud 

 barking, and then attacked the animal, leaping at it first on 

 one side and then on the other, attacking it in the most skilful 

 manner, and then again retreating at the opportune moment, 

 until at last the elephant, being rendered quite giddy by turn- 

 ing round and round, fell to the earth, and made it quite re- 

 echo with his fall. 



that the account was invented to enhance the value of the spotted or striped 

 dogs, which were brought from India. B. 



18 The dog is capable of generating with the wolf; and as what is termed 

 the shepherd's dog much resembles the wolf, Cuvier conceives it not impos- 

 sible, that it may have originated from this mixture ; Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 

 459 ; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 481. B. 



19 This is mentioned by .Elian, in his Anim. Nat. B. vi. c. 53, and his Var. 

 Hist. B. i. c. 4., It likewise forms the subject of one of Phaedrus's Fables, 



