52 CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



Mr. Bell relates that a friend of his was travelling on the Continent with his dog, a female poodle, 

 as liis ruinpMiiion. One day before he left his lodgings, with the expectation of bring absent till the 

 evening, hr took out his purse in his room, to ascertain if it contained money enough for the day's 

 use, and thru went his way, leaving the dog behind. Having dined at a coffee-house, he took out his 

 purse, iind missing a louis-d'or, searched for it diligently, but to no pin-pose. Returning home late in 

 the evening, his servant let him in with a face of sorrow, and told him that the poor dog was very ill, 

 as she had not eaten all the day ; and, what appeared very strange, she would not suffer him to take 

 u\v:iy the food from before her, but had been lying with her nose close to the vessel, without 

 attempting to touch it. On her master entering the room, she instantly jumped upon him, laid the 

 louis-d'or at his feet, and immediately began to devour her food again with great voracity. The truth 

 was now apparent : her master had dropped the money in the morning when leaving the room, and 

 the faithful creature finding it, had held it in her mouth until his return enabled her to restore it to 

 his own hands, even refusing to eat for a whole day, lest it should be out of her custody. Mr. Bell 

 adds to this interesting story : " I knew the dog well, arid have witnessed many curious tricks of hers, 

 showing extraordinary docility." 



Plutarch tells us that he saw a dog at Rome whose master had taught him many pretty tricks ; one 



THE POODLE. 



of which he proceeds to describe. The master soaked a piece of bread iu a certain drug, which was indeed 

 somniferous, but which he pretended was a deadly poison. As soon as the dog had swallowed it he 

 began to quake, tremble, and stagger, as if stupefied. At length he fell down, seemed to breathe his 

 last, and became stretched out in all the stiffness of death, suffering any one to pull him about or to 

 turn him over, without giving the least symptom of life. The master was now lavish in his endea\cmis 

 to restore the dog, who began gradually to revive, as if waked from a dead sleep, slowly lifted up his 

 head, opened his eyes, and gazed with a vacant stare all around. In a few moments more the dog got 

 on his feet, shook himself, and recognising his master, ran up merrily to him. " The whole of this 

 scene," says Plutarch, "was performed so naturally, that all who were present, among whom was the 

 Emperor Vespasian, were exceedingly delighted." 



The scene we have engraved from a picture by Jan Steen exhibits a poodle, with his hinder 

 quarters and fore paws shaven, dancing for the amusement of a household, the details of which 

 are elaborately given by this celebrated painter, whose subjects display both liveliness and 

 humour. 



Not long ago a white poodle publicly pel-formed very admirably in Paris, at the exhibition of 

 the Ombres Chinoises ; and at one of the theatres of the city, two Newfoundland dogs acted with 

 extraordinary sagacity in a drama, entitled "Les Chiens du Mont St. Bernard." 



The histrionic performances of a troop of dogs, consisting of poodles and spaniels, exhibited in 



