6 The Collie or Sheep Dog. 



illustration of the Syrian dog is in some respects by no 

 means unlike the modern collie, although more wolf-like 

 in general character, especially in the shape of his 

 body. He says that the Jews, not being a hunting people, 

 did not utilise the instinct of the dog for the pursuit of 

 game. On the contrary the Egyptians had several varieties 

 of the dog trained for domestic purposes some for hunting, 

 others as pets, holding them in peculiar estimation. " They 

 saw in the horizon," says M. Blaze in his History of the 

 Dog (Paris, 1843), "a superb star, which appeared always 

 at the precise time when the over-flowing of the Nile 

 commenced, and they gave to it the name of Sirius. This 

 Sirius is a god ; the dog renders us a service ; it is a god," 

 said they. " The dog thus came to be regarded as the god 

 of the river, which the people represented with the body of a 

 man and the head of a dog. This river god was also given 

 a genealogy, bearing the name of Anubis, son of Osiris ; 

 its image was placed at the entrance of the temple of Isis 

 and Osiris, and subsequently at the gates of all the temples 

 in Egypt." (The latter possibly was in honour of Osiris, 

 who has the credit of being the introducer of civilisation 

 into Egypt.) Blaze proceeds to say, "The dog being the 

 symbol of vigilance, it was thus intended to warn princes 

 of their constant duty to watch over the welfare of their 

 people. The dog was worshipped principally at Hermopolis 

 the Great, and ultimately in all towns in Egypt. Juvenal 

 writes : ' Whole cities worship the dog ; not one Diana.' 

 At a subsequent period Cynopolis, the ' City of the Dog ' 

 was built in the dog's honour, and there the priests cele- 

 brated its festivals in great splendour." 



Other writers say that Anubis was represented as 

 bearing a dog's head, because, when Osiris proceeded upon 



