EVOLUTION OF THE PEKINGESE TYPE 



A.D. 375-405) remarks " that the Turks who live in the towns 

 do not keep domestic dogs, and the dogs have no special 

 masters, except the very little tiny Maltese and Polonian 

 ones, which are much prized and which the women of good 

 family rear for pleasure." * Dr. Caius f wrote : " There are 

 also among us, among the kind of (or, another kind of) high- 

 bred dogs, but outside the common run of these dogs (namely) 

 those which Callimachus calls Melitei, from the Island of 

 Melita in the Sicilian Strait, whence that kind chiefly had its 

 origin also. That kind is very small indeed, and chiefly 

 sought after for the amusement and pleasure of women. The 

 smaller the kind the more pleasing it is, so that they may 

 carry them in their bosoms in their beds ; and in their arms 

 in their carriages. That kind of dog is altogether useless for 

 any purposes except that they ease pain of the stomach, being 

 often applied to it, or frequently borne in the bosom of the 

 diseased person (easing pain) by their moderate warmth." 

 Fleming, writing in 1576, added an explanatory note to his 

 translation of Dr. Cains, and remarked of the Maltese that 

 they were" dogges curled and rough all over, which by 

 reason of the length of their haire make showe neither of 

 face nor of body ; yet these curs, forsooth, because they 

 are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up and 

 made of many times in the rooms of the Spaniels Gentle or 

 Comforter." 



The Maltese was subsequently called the Shock dog. 

 Johnston, writing in 1755, describes the Maltese as being 

 ' either short-haired or long-haired or maned." " In size 

 they resemble the ordinary weasel." " That they may be 

 born with shaggy coats, their keepers line the places where 

 they lie with sheepskins, that they may always have them 



* " Toy Dogs and their Ancestors," pp. 266, 269, 272, 25. 



f A physician to Queen Elizabeth, wrote in 1570. Translated in " Toy Dogs." 



K 



