DOG-BREEDING 



" A black dog with white fore-legs, many male children 



will be born to the family. 



" A yellow dog with white fore-legs, he will have good luck. 



" The breeding of a white dog with a black head is lucky, 



and will bring a man riches. 



"A white dog with a black tail will cause the family 



through all generations to ride in chariots." * 



With these old superstitious beliefs may be compared the 

 ancient Parsee rite for expulsion of the corpse-drug from the 

 dead by means of a dog having two spots above the eyes or 

 of a white dog having yellow ears. " As soon as this dog 

 has looked at the dead," remarks the ritual, " the Drug flees 

 back to hell in the shape of a fly.f 



Numerous historians refer to the care bestowed by the 

 Emperors of the Tang and Sung Dynasties upon their dogs. 

 These Emperors, unlike the English kings, who when resident 

 at Greenwich kept their sporting kennels at the Isle of Dogs, 

 appear to have bred their dogs in the palace, and even in the 

 Imperial ancestral temple. Under the Emperor Wan Li 

 (1563-1620) this was prohibited, and one of the eunuchs, 

 guilty of keeping a small dog in this temple, escaped severe 

 punishment only on payment of a substantial " squeeze." 



In Europe remarkable freedom was allowed to dog-owners 

 by the mediaeval Church. The office of " dog-whipper," 

 whose holder's duty was to keep the congregation's dogs in 

 order while in church during services, was held in numerous 

 churches in England, and in some persisted beyond the 

 middle of the nineteenth century. On the Continent, too, it 

 was customary to allow dogs to enter sacred buildings with 

 their masters. " At Avignon the dogs made love or war, and 

 barked in the churches at pleasure." J 



* In ancient China only members of families in which there were officials were 

 allowed to ride in carts. 



t " Sacred Books of the East," Zend Avesta, vol. iv, p. Ixxxvii. 

 j Notes and Queries, p. 343, October 1897. 



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