ATTACHMENT OF A DOG TO HIS MASTER. 279 



proceedings showed a degree of instinct which almost 

 amounted to reason. 



So many stories have been told of the strong attachment 

 of dogs to their masters, that to enlarge upon the subject 

 would be superfluous. I must, however, relate one anecdote 

 which was told me lately. A minister of a parish in this 

 neighbourhood having died, his favourite dog followed his 

 body to the grave, and no inducement could persuade the 

 faithful animal to leave the place. Night and day, bad 

 weather and good, did the dog remain stretched on the grave. 

 The people of the neighbourhood, finding all their endeavours 

 to entice him away fruitless, and respecting his fidelity, fed 

 and protected him. This continued for several weeks in- 

 deed until some time after the manse was tenanted by a new 

 minister, whose wife, from some wretched feeling of super- 

 stition, caused the dog to be killed. May the mourners over 

 her own grave be better treated ! The source from which I 

 received this anecdote leaves no doubt upon my mind as to 

 its truth. I must own, indeed, that I am greatly inclined to 

 believe all stories which exemplify the reasoning powers or 

 the fidelity of dogs. However marvellous they may be, my 

 own experience leads me to think that, although they may 

 not be probable, at least they are possible. 



The dog is peculiarly the friend and companion of man. 

 In every country this is the case, and it has been so in every 

 age. There is one use, however, to which they are put, the 

 propriety of which I cannot admit, namely, that of being 

 eaten. Being decidedly a carnivorous animal, the dog can 

 never have been intended for our food ; and those nations 

 who eat dog's flesh, as the Chinese and certain of the Ameri- 

 can Indian tribes, appear to me to be guilty of a sort of 

 cannibalism almost as bad as if they ate each other. Yet we 

 read accounts of their being occasionally eaten in those 

 countries by our own countrymen, and actually relished. 

 Hunger, we all know, is a good sauce ; and perhaps a young 

 puppy may not be bad, though in all probability those 

 travellers would have found an infant still more relishing. I 

 confess that I have as little inclination to try the one experi- 

 ment as the other. 



There are two kinds of dogs which have been bred in much 

 greater numbers since the rage for Highland shooting and 

 deer-forests has become so strong I mean the Highland 

 deer-hound and the old bloodhound. The former is im- 



