4 EARLY HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



unclean beasts. The traffic in him and the price of him were considered 

 as an abomination, and were forbidden to be offered in the sanctuary in 

 the discharge of any vow. a 



One grand object in the institution of the Jewish ritual was to preserve 

 the Israelites from the idolatry which at that time prevailed among every 

 other people. Dogs were held in considerable veneration by the Egyp- 

 tians, from whose tyranny the Israelites had just escaped. Figures of 

 them appeared on the friezes of most of the temples, b and they were 

 regarded as emblems of the Divine Being. Herodotus, speaking of the 

 sanctity in which some animals were held by the Egyptians, says that the 

 people of every family in which a dog died, shaved themselves their 

 expression of mourning and he adds, that " this was a custom existing 

 in his own time." c 



The cause of this attachment to and veneration for the dog is, however, 

 explained in a far more probable and pleasing way than many of the 

 fables of ancient mythology. The prosperity of Lower Egypt, and 

 almost the very subsistence of its inhabitants, depended on the annual 

 overflowing of the Nile ; and they looked for it with the utmost anxiety. 

 Its approach was announced by the appearance of a certain star SIRIUS. 

 As soon as that star was seen above the horizon, they hastened to remove 

 their flocks to the higher ground, and abandoned the lower pastures to 

 the fertilizing influence of the stream. They hailed it as their guard and 

 protector ; and, associating with its apparent watchfulness the well-known 

 fidelity of the dog, they called it the " dog-star," and they worshipped 

 it. It was in far later periods and in other countries that the appearance 

 of the dog-star was regarded as the signal of insufferable heat or preva- 

 lent disease. 



One of the Egyptian deities Armbis is described as having the form 

 and body of a man, but with a dog's head. These were types of sagacity 

 and fidelity. 



In Ethiopia, not only was great veneration paid to the dog, but the 

 inhabitants used to elect a dog as their king. He was kept in great state, 

 and surrounded by a numerous train of officers and guards. When he 

 fawned upon them, he was supposed to be pleased with their proceedings ; 

 when he growled, he disapproved of the manner in which their govern- 

 ment was conducted. These indications of his will were implicitly 

 obeyed, or rather, perhaps, were translated by his worshippers as their 

 own caprice or interest dictated. 



Even a thousand years after this period the dog was highly esteemed in 

 Egypt for its sagacity and other excellent qualities ; for, when Pythagoras, 

 after his return from Egypt, founded a new sect in Greece, and a* 

 Croton, in southern Italy, he taught, with the Egyptian philosophers, 

 that, at the death of the body, the soul entered into that of different ani- 

 mals. He used, after the decease of any of his favourite disciples, to cause 

 a dog to be held to the mouth of the dying man, in order to receive his 

 departing spirit ; saying, that there was no animal that could perpetuate 

 his virtues better than that quadruped. 



It was in order to preserve the Israelites from errors and follies like 



a Deut. xxiii. 18. and broad muzzle, not unlike the old Tal- 



b In some of Belzoni's beautiful sketches bot hound, 



of the frieze- wrrk of the old Egyptian tern- c Herodotus, lib. ii c. 66. 

 pies, the dog appears, with his long ears 



