676 THE DOG. 



amongst them after sunset without a light and guards, might 

 as well pass through a crowd of wolves. These animals, ac- 

 customed to prey on human bodies left in the streets, will 

 devour the stranger whom they may happen to master, as 

 readily as they would a kid or a lamb. If a strange dog 

 ventures amongst them, they will, in an instant, surround 

 him and tear him to pieces ; or, should one of their number 

 fall down from wounds or fatigue, his fellows will set upon 

 him on the instant and devour him. Yet these rude dogs, 

 in the absence of human protection, have devised something 

 like laws of their own. Each community has its own quar- 

 ter of the city ; and should a straggler from another quarter 

 enter it, he will in a few minutes be surrounded and torn by 

 a hundred mouths. But should he be happy enough to escape 

 over his own frontier, he turns fiercely round upon his assail- 

 ants, knowing that he will be immediately supported. It is 

 in the Mohammedan towns that the worst of these hateful 

 dogs are now found ; but the nuisance seems to have existed 

 in every age in the same countries. How many are the allu- 

 sions in ancient writers to the fate of enemies to be thrown 

 to the dogs to be devoured ! Even Hector promises his Tro- 

 jans that the body of their bravest enemy shall be given to 

 the dogs of Troy ; and who does not remember the pleading 

 of the noble Hector himself, when, pierced by the fatal spear 

 of Achilles, he finds words to deprecate the same cruel fate ! 



" By thine own life, by theirs who gave thee birth, 

 And by thy knees, oh ! let not Grecian Dogs 

 Rend and devour me ; 



and. the inexorable reply, 



" Dog ! neither knees nor parents name to me, 



: so true it is and sure 



That none shall save thy carcass from the Dogs." 



In the cities and villages of India, are likewise numerous 

 outcast dogs ; but, living amongst a mild race of people, 

 they have nothing of the savage temperament of those of the 



