Making a White Dog Black. 9 



white dog black, a piece of dishonest practice which of late 

 years has been in vogue to a certain extent, especially 

 so far as darkening what might be the white breast of 

 a black and tan terrier. One was hardly prepared to find 

 that any persons would have found it to their advantage 

 to act so dishonestly with a dog hundreds of years ago, 

 when the ordinary reader would little imagine "faking" 

 was in vogue. However, here is the author's mode of 

 procedure : " The country dog may, however, happen to be 

 white, although in other respects he may be very good. 

 The first thing to do then is to make him of a black colour. 

 Take some quick-lime and let it effervesce in water along 

 with a lump of litharge, and if you rub the dog with this 

 it will easily blacken him." Rather a drastic recipe, and 

 one which must have been used with great care. Our 

 author notwithstanding, I believe the white dog uncoloured 

 would do his duty quite as well, and be found of equal 

 use with the black one, be the latter artificially made so 

 or in his natural habit. 



These same dogs that Aldrovandus describes, according 

 to Bellonius, " in Turkey have no individual owners, conse- 

 quently do not go inside the houses, merely having a 

 shelter stuck up for them in the yard under which they 

 sleep ; and alongside the walls of the house there are 

 certain stone troughs into which bread, scraps, and bones 

 are thrown, and on these they feed. They protect the 

 place where they are brought up, and from it they drive 

 away prowling dogs and wolves." 



Blondus says shepherds could not defend a large flock 

 of sheep from prowling wolves without their sheep dogs 

 that are armed with iron collars like that faithful shepherd's 

 dog referred to by the poet "safeguard of his property, 



