Divine Honour. 



his Indian expedition, Anubis accompanied him clothed in 

 dog skins. This is, however, a doubtful statement, as some 

 assert that Anubis was clad in the skin of a sheep, and not 

 in that of a dog. Whichever of the two stories be correct, 

 there is no doubt the dog that guarded the property and 

 the flocks of the Egyptians was thoroughly honoured, his 

 popularity travelled rapidly westward, and the worship of 

 the dog god came to be intermingled with the religious 

 ceremonies of other nations. Lucan says, "We have 

 received into our Roman temples thine Isis, and divinities 

 half dog." . . . The fire-worshippers of Persia paid 

 divine honour to the dog, and he is still held in deep 

 veneration by the Parsees. 



In allusion to the quotation from Job already given, Canon 

 Tristram says the dogs were only used as guards, to protect 

 the herds and flocks from wolves and jackals, and not to 

 drive them. When dogs were first instructed in the art of 

 driving sheep, and the ordinary purposes for which a well- 

 trained collie is required at the present day, there is nothing 

 to show. 



That they were not so utilised in Great Britain to any 

 great extent three or four hundred years ago I take to be a 

 fact, because throughout the whole of Shakespere's plays 

 not a single allusion is made to the shepherd's dog. The 

 ordinary dog of course appears often enough, and so does 

 the shepherd, but any combination of the two is not to be 

 met with. Had shepherds' dogs been in common use when 

 the great dramatist and poet lived, some reference or other 

 would doubtless have been made to them, and, although I 

 cannot believe that the English farmstead in the sixteenth 

 century was without its dogs for some other purpose than 

 sporting, the conclusion must naturally be reached that they 



