670 THE DOG. 



tonini. But the ancients give us little information with re- 

 spect to what may be called the Natural History of the Bog, 

 and almost all their notices refer to his properties and ser- 

 vices chiefly as an instrument of the chase. They had their 

 swift-footed Dogs, Canes Celeres, which they employed in cour- 

 sing ; their Canes Sagaces, comprehending the dogs employed 

 to track the game by the scent ; their Canes BelUcosi, or dogs 

 employed in the destruction of the larger animals, and in 

 war. Their methods of chase appear to have been the same 

 as prevailed in a latter age, up to the general use of fire- 

 arms. They pursued the practice of tracking the game in 

 the woods, and rousing it from its retreats, by hounds which 

 followed the scent, and of running it down by the swifter 

 dogs ; and, in fowling, they employed dogs, such as the 

 modern spaniels, to drive the feathered game into nets or 

 other snares. They employed powerful dogs to defend their 

 herds and flocks ; and the " Cave Canem" on the portals of the 

 Roman houses, shews that the same means were employed to 

 protect goods from plunder as in the present day. The Dog 

 was used by the Romans for food, as it still is, but far more 

 extensively, by the Chinese and other Eastern Asiatics, by the 

 inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands, and by the Negroes. 



Dogs, we are informed, were largely employed by the Cel- 

 tic Gauls and other barbarians in war, and even up to a later 

 age, the same cruel instrument of destruction was not dis- 

 used. The Spaniards made use of dogs against the helpless 

 natives of South America, and even the Tudor Princes of 

 England, we are informed, employed them in their Irish 

 wars ; and the traces of the practice long existed in the Bor- 

 der districts of England and Scotland, in the use of blood- 

 hounds, trained to the chase of human victims. The use 

 of fire-arms put an end to these as to many barbarous usages, 

 and dogs at length were only employed in war, in a man- 

 ner in which they may be lawfully used, that is lawfully, so 

 long as the destruction of our fellow-creatures is regarded 

 as lawful, namely, as sentinels to give warning of danger. 



