i5o FLESH-EATERS OF THE LAND 



hour, and are, in fact, almost unmanageable. To the 

 women, who nurse them when they are ill and treat them 

 with greater kindness than the men, the Dogs are affec- 

 tionate in the highest degree. From the men they receive 

 little except blows and rough treatment ; still they are faith- 

 ful and enduring. 



WILD DOG. 



In various parts of the world there are Wild Dogs, of 

 which it is impossible to say whether they are of the 

 original stock, or whether they are the descendants of once 

 domesticated animals, which at some time deserted into 

 the woods, in a country where game abounds, there shifting 

 for themselves and becoming the ancestors of a numerous 

 race. 



The Pariah Dogs of India are a sort of half-domesticated 

 breed, which roam about the towns and villages, where 

 they fulfil the office of scavengers, devouring the offal of 

 the markets and clearing the streets of refuse. They are 

 generally ugly brutes, coarse-skinned, blear-eyed, and 

 scrubby-tailed. Though treated kindly by the public, they 

 are absolutely ownerless, and have no idea of human com- 

 panionship. In the large cities the Dogs divide themselves 

 into communities, each of which is restricted to a certain 

 area, and if an animal strays from its own quarter of the 

 town it is immediately driven back by the pack into whose 

 domain it has intruded. 



These remarks apply not only to the Dogs of India, but 

 of other Eastern countries also. It is the same dog that is 

 so often mentioned in the Scriptures as a ravening beast ; 

 which licked up the blood of Ahab ; and which so terribly 

 fulfilled the prophecy that ' the dogs shall eat Jezebel in the 

 portion of Jezreel, and there shall be none to bury her/ 



Quite different is the Red Dog of the Deccan. It is not a 

 city dweller, but roams in troops through the jungles. It 

 is individually a match for any of the smaller mammals, for 

 it is ferocious and wonderfully bold ; but in the pack it will 

 cause even the tiger hastily to desert its freshly caught prey 

 and take refuge in the low fork of a tree, there in impotent 

 wrath to watch the disappearance of its meal. 



