56 MEMOIR OF PLINY. 



dore, and when his master was throwne downe the 

 staires, (called Scalae Gemoniae,) would not depart 

 from his dead corps, but kept a most pitteous howl- 

 ing and lamentation about it, in the sight of a great 

 multitude of Romanes that stood round about to see 

 the execution ; and when one of the companie threw 

 the dogge a piece of meat, he straightwaies caried it 

 to the mouth of his master lying dead. Moreouer, 

 when the carkasse was throwne into the river Ti- 

 beris, the same dogge swam after, and made all the 

 mean he could to bear it up aflote, that it should not 

 sink ; and to the sight of this spectacle, and fidelitie 

 of the poore dogge to his master, a number of people 

 ran forth by heapes from the citie to the water side. 

 Certes, the longer we Hue, the more things we ob- 

 serue and marke still in these dogges. As for hunt- 

 ing, there is not a beast so subtle, so quick, and so 

 fine of scent, as is the hound ; he hunteth and follow- 

 eth the beaste by the foot, training the hunter that 

 leads him by the coller and leash, to the very place 

 where the beaste lieth. Hauing once gotten an eie 

 of his game, how silent and secret are they riotwith 

 standing ; and yet how significant is their discouerie 

 of .the beaste vnto the hunter, first with wagging 

 their taile, and afterwards with their nose and snout 

 as they doe ; and therefore it is no maruell if, when 

 hounds or beagles be ouer old, wearie and blinde, men 

 carie them in their armes to hunt, for to wind the 

 beaste, and by the very scent of the nose to shew and 

 declare where the beaste is at harbour. To prevent 



