SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 669 



East, even in Egypt, where the Dog was venerated, and in 

 Greece during the ages termed Heroic. It is generally be- 

 lieved that the Hindoos have acquired the feelings of their 

 Mohammedan tyrants towards the Dog : but this is an error. 

 The Hindoos, like other people of the East, have nume- 

 rous unowned dogs in their towns, but the Hindoos, though 

 restrained by feelings connected with their ideas of the 

 sanctity of food, from admitting the dog to that familiarity 

 which is customary with us, have a great fondness for the 

 Dog, in which respect they resemble all the other members 

 of the Caucasian family not Mohammedan. It is the Jews 

 and Mohammedans alone who regard this animal as some- 

 thing unhallowed ; but it is not they alone who vilify their 

 enemies as dogs and the sons of dogs. For, the people of 

 all countries, even those who profit the most by the services 

 of the animal, employ expressions of hatred and contempt, 

 founded on what they conceive to be the most vile and hate- 

 ful in his attributes. His greediness, his uncleanness, his 

 impudence, his quarrelsome temper, nay, his submission and 

 fawning, have furnished us with epithets wherewith to insult 

 one another. The cause, perhaps, lies no deeper than this, 

 that the Dog living in our society, we are able to observe his 

 habits and actions, and perhaps to find in them too faithful a 

 similitude of some of our own. Were monkeys to live 

 amongst us, we should doubtless be able to find in them 

 some traits of character which we might apply to our neigh- 

 bours, and so be as ready to speak of the son of a Monkey 

 as the son of a Dog. 



To the Domestic Dog, we have innumerable references in 

 almost every kind of writings, from the songs of the people 

 to the disquisitions of the naturalist and metaphysician, and 

 even treatises have been devoted to the subject, of ancient 

 date, of which some, in whole or in part, have come down 

 to us. Of these the most remarkable are the Cynegetica 

 of Xenophon, who lived 445 years before Christ, and Ar- 

 rian, who flourished in the reigns of Hadrian and the An- 



