256 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES, 



the refugee, who was peacefully jogging along toward 

 Ann Arbor. " Three seconds later," says the Detroit 

 Press, " any liberal man would have given five dollars 

 to know what that dog thought of himself." 



Old fighters, however, generally know what they have 

 to expect, and go it headlong, 



Den Baren gleich, die keine Wunde scheuen, 



taking and giving wounds with equal recklessness. 

 There are animals of such thick-headed stolidity that 

 their fortitude needs not much stoicism ; but next to a 

 monkey a dog is nearly the most sensitive of all verte- 

 brate creatures, and his power of endurance under cer- 

 tain circumstances can be explained only by the anaes- 

 thetic influence of excitement. Maimed, blinded, and 

 disembowelled, a boar-hound will yet stick to his foe 

 with the tenacity of a snapping-turtle, and an English 

 bull-dog will fight while he can stir, resolved to yield 

 only in yielding his life. 



Dog-fights are represented on the bas-reliefs of Per- 

 sepolis, and formed probably the earliest pastime of the 

 pastoral Aryans. Hund (hound) was a favorite cogno- 

 men of the ancient Germans, who prized valor as the 

 supreme virtue; the four-footed fighter par excellence 

 became the companion of the biped warrior, and only 

 among the Semitic nations the aversion to the uncleanli- 

 ness of man's truest friend outweighed this partiality. 

 The Saracens shared that prejudice; on the treeless 

 plains of their native country, where every herder is a 



