C26 THE DOG. 



forth, the glaring of his eye, his mysterious crossing of the 

 path of the lonely traveller, the pertinacity with which he 

 tracks the steps of his human victim, and even enters his 

 dwelling, have in all ages tended to excite ideas of a myste- 

 rious power, and notions which yet find a place in the super- 

 stition of the vulgar of different countries. Even the terror 

 which this creature has inspired, has rendered him the object 

 of preposterous adoration. He was held sacred to Apollo, 

 whom a she-wolf suckled, and to other fabled divinities of the 

 first ages. Under the gloomy superstition of the Scandina- 

 vian nations, he was regarded as a type of the destroying 

 demon, who was to appear at that terrible epoch when even 

 the Gods should perish. More often he was held to be typical 

 of noble daring, ever the first of virtues amongst barbarians. 

 He was an attendant upon Odin, in the gloomy Shades of the 

 northern nations, as on Mars, in the fairer Heaven of the 

 Olympic Gods. He suckled the founders of the Roman 

 state, and gave cognominations to the noblest families of 

 Greece and Rome. But it is chiefly amongst the Teutonic 

 nations that we find the Wolf associated with the memory 

 of great actions ; and giving names to nations, tribes, and 

 warlike leaders. 



The Common "Wolf, Lupus vulgaris, the most numerous of 

 the species, inhabits all Europe, from the Icy Cape to the 

 shores of the Mediterranean. He is found, too, in all North- 

 ern and Central Asia, extending through the wilds of Siberia 

 to the shores of Kamtschatka. He is found in the countries 

 of the Caucasus, and all along the Himalayas ; and, by ana- 

 logy, he may be believed to occupy all the higher ranges in 

 contact with that mighty mass of mountains. Stretching 

 along the secondary chains, he appears in the plains of In- 

 dia, and beyond the Brahmapootra. His limits in the African 

 Continent are unknown ; but it is believed that he exists 

 from Morocco eastward to the Libyan deserts, and even that 

 he extends to the high land of Abyssinia, and the mountains 

 stretching inland. In the New World, he is found from 



