CHAPTER LIV 

 THE MALTESE 



ALL English writers upon dogs, new and old, agree in one thing, 

 and that is, that in centuries long past Malta furnished Toy dogs 

 for the " dainty dames and mincing mistresses " of both Greece 

 and Rome. There also appears to be a general agreement that 

 the Island of Malta is identical with the Melita ascribed by ancient 

 writers as the home of these pet dogs ; and, further, that we 

 originally obtained the breed from that place, although some of 

 them recognise the fact that no proof of the supposition exists. 

 Dr. Johannes Caius says (writing, be it remarked, of the Toy 

 Spaniel of his time) : " They are called Meliti, of the Island of 

 Malta, whence they were brought hither." 



Strabo, who was one of the earliest writers to refer specially 

 to these Toys, does not give Malta as the native place of the 

 breed, but, on the contrary, writes as follows : " There is a town 

 in Sicily called Melita, whence are exported many beautiful dogs, 

 called Canes Melitei. They were the peculiar favourites of the 

 women ; but now [A.D. 25] there is less account made of these 

 animals, which are not bigger than common ferrets or weasels ; 

 yet they are not small in their understanding nor unstable in 

 their love." Strabo must have been wanting in the organ of 

 comparativeness, or the weasels of his time were of Brobdingnagian 

 proportions compared with ours; but the point is, if Melita, in 

 Sicily, was the birthplace of the so-called Maltese dog, why 

 ascribe its origin to the Island of Malta? 



As stated, practically every English writer seems to have taken 

 it for granted that the dog we call Maltese originally came from 

 Malta ; but not one offers the slightest proof in support of the 

 assumption. It would be needless to go through the works of 

 these writers seriatim. " Stonehenge," in his earliest work on 

 the dog, describes the breed as nearly extinct, but, although " scarce, 

 still to be obtained in Malta." He, however, in the same work 

 gives an engraving of a dog, as a Maltese, imported from Manilla. 

 In " The Dogs of the British Islands," still hankering after Malta 



