256 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



the refugee, who was peacefully jogging along toward 

 Ann Arbor. " Three seconds later," says the Detroit 

 Press, " any liberal man would have given five dollars 

 to know what that dog thought of himself." 



Old fighters, however, generally know what they have 

 to expect, and go it headlong, — 



Den Baren gleich, die keine Wunde scheuen, — 

 taking and giving wounds with equal recklessness. 

 There are animals of such thick-headed stolidity that 

 their fortitude needs not much stoicism ; but next to a 

 monkey a dog is nearly the most sensitive of all verte- 

 brate creatures, and his power of endurance under cer- 

 tain circumstances can be explained only by the anaes- 

 thetic influence of excitement. Maimed, blinded, and 

 disembowelled, a boar-hound will yet stick to his foe 

 with the tenacity of a snapping-turtle, and an English 

 bull-dog will fight while he can stir, resolved to yield 

 only in yielding his life. 



Dog-fights are represented on the bas-reliefs of Per- 

 sepolis, and formed probably the earliest pastime of the 

 pastoral Aryans. Huiid (hound) was a favorite cogno- 

 men of the ancient Germans, who prized valor as the 

 supreme virtue ; the four-footed fighter par excellence 

 became the companion of the biped warrior, and only 

 among the Semitic nations the aversion to the uncleanli- 

 ness of man's truest friend outweighed this partiality. 

 The Saracens shared that prejudice; on the treeless 

 plains of their native country, where every herder is a 



