THE MASTIFF. 165 



An old writer says that, in choosing " a mastie that keepeth 

 the house, you must provide such a one as hath a large and 

 mightie bodie, a great and a shrill voice, that both with his 

 barking he may discover, and with his sight dismay the thief, 

 yea, being not seen, with the horror of his voice put him to 

 flight. His stature must neither be long nor short, but well 

 set, his head great, his eyes sharp and fierie, either brown or 

 gray, his lips blackish, neither turning up, nor hanging too 

 much downe, his mouth blacke and wide, his neather jaw fat, 

 and coming out of it on either side a fang, appearing more 

 outward than his other teeth $ his upper teeth even with his 

 neather, not hanging too much over, sharpe, and hidden with 

 his lips 5 his countenance like a lion's, his breast great and 

 shag haired, his shoulders broad, his legs big, his tail short, his 

 feet very great j his disposition must neither be too gentle nor 

 too curst, that he neither fawn upon a thief, nor fly upon his 

 friends 5 very waking, no gadder abroad, nor lavish of his 

 mouth, barking without cause. It maketh no matter that he 

 be not swift -, for he is but to fight at home, and to give warn- 

 ing of the enemy. A black dog is best, because of the hurt 

 that he may do to the thief by night by reason of not being 

 seen."* 



In a late Report on the State of Crime in England, it is confessed 

 by a thief and burglar, in the course of his examination, that 

 he and others found " dogs inside houses to be the greatest 

 hindrance, and what occasioned the greatest fear -, and that they 

 did not care much for one outside. A dog inside will stop any 

 side and any thing, if it will only make a noise." This hint 

 ought not to be lost upon those who keep their watch- dogs 

 outside. 



Curran, when a boy, had heard that any person throwing the 

 skirts of his coat over his head, stooping low, holding out his 

 arms and creeping along backward, might frighten the fiercest 

 dog and put him to flight. He accordingly made the experiment 



* Foure BooJces of Husbandrie, by Conrad Heresbatch; newly Englished 

 and Increased by Barnaby Googe (London, 1586), p. 154. 



