EASTERN DOGS IN EARLY TIMES 



An official record * of the Chow Dynasty (about 1000 B.C.) 

 remarks, " From the Southern (of Shansi) States the yearly 

 tribute included amber, pearls, ivory, rhinoceros' horns, 

 kingfishers' feathers, cranes, and short dogs." The nature 

 of the other products clearly indicates that these dogs came 

 from South China, though it is just possible that some of 

 them may have originated from more distant countries, 

 travelling by the sea route. 



Under primitive conditions the dog was, no doubt, more 

 than the friend of man. He was his ally, useful for pro- 

 tection, necessary alike for the guarding of his herds and the 

 taking of his prey. It was only when man, by agriculture 

 and his other arts, had improved his position sufficiently to 

 become independent, that he began to give the dog a bad 

 name, certain religions, such as the Jewish and Mohammedan, 

 banning the race as abominable and unclean. In the whole 

 of Jewish history there is not a single allusion to hunting 

 with dogs. Jewish prejudice was, no doubt, largely due to 

 the exaggerated idolatry practised to the race from time im- 

 memorial by the Egyptians, hereditary enemies of the Jews. 



The beneficent dog-headed divinity Anubis, originally a 

 jackal-type, and later represented by the dog as his emblem, 

 was among the Egyptians, servant, messenger, and custodian 

 of the gods, lord of the cemetery and of the underworld. 

 Temples were consecrated to him throughout the land, and 

 his image was borne in all religious ceremonies. This dog- 

 worship was not confined to Egypt, for the Greeks adopted it, 

 and a Roman emperor carried the god Anubis in the feasts of 

 Isis. Herodotus, speaking of the sanctity in which some 

 animals were held by the Egyptians, to whom the appearance 

 of the watchful dog-star Sirius, " Latrator Anubis," above the 

 horizon was the signal that their flocks had to be removed 



* " Yi Chou Shu." 



II 



