CH. XXXIII. DOG-EATING REPROBATED. 209 



wretched feeling of superstition, caused the dog to 

 be killed. May the mourners over her own grave 

 be better treated ! The source from which I 

 received this anecdote leaves no doubt upon my 

 mind as to its truth. I must own, indeed, that I 

 am greatly inclined to believe all stories which 

 exemplify the reasoning powers or the fidelity of 

 dogs. However marvellous they may be, my own 

 experience leads me to think that, although they 

 may not be probable, at least they are possible. 



The dog is peculiarly the friend and companion 

 of man. In every country this is the case, and it 

 has been so in every age. There is one use, how- 

 ever, to which they are put, the propriety of which 

 I cannot admit, namely, that of being eaten. Being 

 decidedly a carnivorous animal, the dog can never 

 have been intended for our food ; and those nations 

 who eat dog's flesh, as the Chinese and certain of 

 the American Indian tribes, appear to me to be 

 guilty of a sort of cannibalism almost as bad as 

 if they ate each other. Yet we read accounts of 

 their being occasionally eaten in those countries 

 by our own countrymen, and actually relished. 

 Hunger, we all know, is a good sauce ; and per- 

 haps a young puppy may not be bad, though in 

 all probability those travellers would have found 

 an infant still more relishing. I confess that I 



VOL. II. P 



