682 THE DOG. 



scious of doing so. It is difficult to believe that a dog can 

 comprehend what is said, unless the sentences are very short, 

 especially addressed to him, and frequently repeated in con- 

 nexion with the actions which he is expected to perform. 

 Yet there are cases in which the dog seems to gather some- 

 thing of the purport even of connected sentences. Mr Hogg, 

 well known as the Ettrick Shepherd, mentions a curious case 

 of this kind. He had resolved to go, on the following day, 

 to the house of a friend, many miles distant. He mentioned 

 his intention to the old dame, his mother, adding, " But I 

 will not take Hector with me, for he is constantly quarrelling 

 with the rest of the dogs, singing music, or breeding some 

 uproar." These were all the words, he says, that passed on 

 his part ; but Hector had comprehended enough to know 

 that he was to be made a prisoner in the morning; and 

 when the time for securing him came, he was nowhere to be 

 found. " The Yarrow," says Mr Hogg, " was so large as 

 to be quite impassable, so that I had to go up by St Mary's 

 Loch, and go across by the boat ; and on drawing near to 

 Bowerhope, I soon perceived that matters had gone precisely 

 as I expected. Large as the Yarrow was, and it appeared 

 impassable by any living creature, Hector had made his 

 escape early in the morning, had swum the river, and was 

 sitting, like a drookit hen, on a knoll at the east end of 

 the house, awaiting my arrival with much impatience."* 

 The older shepherds of Scotland, it is to be observed, uni- 

 versally believe that their dogs have the power of compre- 



* Shepherds' Calendar by James Hogg. The " singing music," referred to 

 by our author, as one,, of Hector's offences, was a propensity not uncommon in 

 Dogs of his class, of joining in the psalm tunes, or other music which they 

 heard. Mr Hogg being obliged sometimes to supply his father's place as clerk 

 or precentor in the parish church, used to be thrown into a fever, whenever 

 Hector made his appearance at church ; for Hector never failed to join his 

 master with all his might when the tune was struck up, and the two together 

 so overpowered the lungs of the rest of the congregation. " that he and I," 

 says Mr Hogg, " seldom got any one to join in the music but ourselves." 

 " I was, time after time," says he, " so completely put out of all countenance 

 by the brute, that I was obliged to give up my office in disgust." 



