222 KELIGIOUS FEELING 



to be possessed but of one dominant idea, and that is his 

 master (Cobbe). Its love is so intense sometimes that any 

 rupture of the relationship, especially if sudden, any loss by 

 death, or even temporary absence from home, of a beloved 

 master or mistress begets, as is shown in another chapter, a 

 fatal grief. Its love is life-lasting and unchanging, and not 

 unfrequently attaches itself to a grave for days, months, or 

 even years after its mortal deity has disappeared from this 

 mortal sphere, The story of * Grey friars Bobby,' the well- 

 known terrier, whose monument may be seen opposite the 

 gate of the Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh, is but the 

 type of numerous incidents of a similar kind. 



In such cases there is an obvious attachment to and 

 respect for a hallowed or cherished memory fidelity to the 

 memory of the dead, to the memory of a great affection. 

 The dog also occasionally treasures up, defends, or otherwise 

 prizes or shows a regard for relics of the loved and lost 

 (Cobbe). In doing so it is apparently actuated by devotional 

 love. But there may also be a certain amount of supersti- 

 tion or a certain kind of fetich worship. 



For the worship of man is not the only kind of idolatry 

 practised by the dog. As has been pointed out by Miss 

 Cobbe, it engages occasionally in rites similar to those of 

 negro fetichism and of the dancing and howling dervish. 

 The object of worship is selected apparently on the principle 

 on which so many human idolaters select their idols because 

 of its oddness, its unfamiliarity. But, unlike the West Afri- 

 can negro, the Samoyede, or Yakut, unlike the human prac- 

 titioner of fetichism or shamanism, in the dog familiarity 

 with its inanimate idol the stone or post, tree or bush, 

 which at first it feared breeds contempt; and a better 

 knowledge of the properties or nature of its fetich, and 

 especially a knowledge of its powerlessness to do harm, a 

 knowledge begotten of due examination and growing cou- 

 rage and experience, leads the thoughtful dog gradually to 

 substitute for the dread, awe, wonder it may be supersti- 

 tion with which it originally regarded it, the deference 

 which it addressed to it, a treatment that is apt to be signally 

 ignominious. 



