GENERAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



ASSUR-BANI-PAL AND HIS ATTENDANTS PREPARING 

 FOR THE HUNT. 



nrod Gallery, 



for thousands of years have been laid bare 

 to the ravages of the northern climate, are 

 representations of ships and boats, with 

 figures of men and animals, and in many of 

 them are to be found 

 tracings of a small 

 quadruped in which 

 canine characteristics 

 are readily recognis- 

 able. In one such ex- 

 ample, discovered at 

 Bohuslan, on the shores 

 of the Cattegat, there 

 can be distinguished 

 several figures of dogs. 

 One seems to be mind- 

 ing a horse, another is 

 being led by a man, 

 and a third appears to 

 be chasing a reindeer. 

 Figures of dogs are 

 also to be found en- 

 graved by prehistoric Assyrian mastiffs 



artists, who have From a Bas-relief in the B 



striven to record their impressions on tablets 

 of bone and horn. 



Evidence exists to show that a tame 

 species of Canidcz was possessed by the 

 ancient inhabitants of North and South 

 America, while dog worship in Peru was 

 an earlier cult even than the sun worship 

 practised by the Mexicans. In nearly all 

 parts of the world, indeed, traces of an 

 indigenous dog family are found, the only 

 exceptions being the West Indian Islands, 

 Madagascar, the eastern islands of the 

 Malayan Archipelago, New Zealand, and 

 the Polynesian Islands, where there is no 

 sign that any dog, wolf, or fox has existed 

 as a true aboriginal animal. In the ancient 

 Oriental lands, and generally among the 

 early Mongolians, the dog remained savage 

 and neglected for centuries, prowling in packs, 

 gaunt and wolf-like, as it prowls to-day 

 through the streets and under the walls of 

 every Eastern city. No attempt was made 

 to allure it into human companionship or to 

 improve it into docility. It is not until we 

 come to examine the records of the higher 

 civilisations of Assyria and Egypt that we 

 discover any distinct varieties of canine form. 



Assyrian sculptures depict two such, a 

 Greyhound and a Mastiff, the latter de- 

 scribed in the tablets as " the chained-up, 

 mouth-opening dog " ; that is to say, it 



HUNTING WILD HORSES. 



itish Museum. Nimrotl Gallery, Panel 109. 



