EASTERN DOGS IN EARLY TIMES 



take from the Due South (of Honan) country " square " 

 dogs as tribute. The Chinese monarchs of the period, 

 perhaps, shared the zoological tastes of the potentates of 

 Assyria, such as Tiglath-Pileser, who collected all kinds of 

 beasts for his menageries at a period about 1200 B.C. Dogs, 

 both large and of small size, are known, from the Egyptian 

 bas-reliefs, to have existed in even earlier days.*f They 

 also existed in South America. J There is nothing to indicate 

 whether the Chinese " square " dogs were large or small. 



The Books of Shang mention the sending as tribute of a hound 

 or hounds, perhaps, according to Chinese commentators quoted 

 by Legge, bloodhounds, called " ao " (pronounced as ough 

 in bough), " knowing the mind of man and capable of being 

 employed " by the wild tribe of Leu in the West " by way of 

 instruction " to the young king, King Woo, probably about 

 1 1 20 B.C. Commenting on this fact the Chinese classics laid 

 the foundation upon which Chinese foreign policy was des- 

 tined, for thirty centuries and more, to be based : " A prince 

 should not do what is unprofitable to the injury of that 

 which is profitable, and then his merit may be completed. 

 He should not value strange things to the contemning of things 

 that are useful, and then his people will be able to supply all 

 his needs. Even dogs and horses which are not native to 

 his country he will not keep ; fine birds and strange animals 

 he will not nourish in his kingdom. When he does not look 



* " Helps to Study of the Bible," plate Ixx. 



f Dr. S. Birch believed the spaniel to be identified on the early Egyptian monu- 

 ments. M. B. Wynne, " History of the Mastiff," 1886, p. 37. 



I " Dogs were used for hunting, and it is noteworthy that remains of three kinds 

 of dog, all differing from that of Europe, have been found on the coast. The largest 

 of these was an animal of medium size with slender head and legs, and was probably 

 used for watching the house (and, in the interior, the herds), and for hunting. The 

 second was a short-legged dog, somewhat resembling a dachshund, which, to judge 

 from a vase-painting, was also used in the chase. The third was a kind of pug, 

 probably kept as a lap-dog." " South American Archaeology," Joyce [Peru], 

 Macmillan, 1912. 



9 



