GENERAL HISTORY 3 



breeds kept in Egypt there was a massive wolf-dog, a large, 

 heavily-built hound with drooping ears and a pointed head, 

 at least two varieties of Greyhound used for hunting the 

 gazelle, and a small breed of terrier or Turnspit, with short, 

 crooked legs. This last appears to have been regarded as an 

 especial household pet, for it was admitted into the living 

 rooms and taken as a companion for walks out of doors. It 

 was furnished with a collar of leaves, or of leather, or precious 

 metal wrought into the form of leaves, and when it died 

 it was embalmed. Every town throughout Egypt had its 

 place of interment for canine mummies. 



The dog was not greatly appreciated in Palestine, and in 

 both the Old and New Testaments it is commonly spoken of 

 with scorn and contempt as an "unclean beast." Even the 

 familiar reference to the Sheepdog in the Book of Job 

 " But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, 

 whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my 

 flock " is not without a suggestion of contempt, and it is 

 significant that the only biblical allusion to the dog as a 

 recognised companion of man occurs in the apocryphal Book 

 of Tobit (v. 16), " So they went forth both, and the young man's 

 dog with them." 



The pagan Greeks and Romans had a kindlier feeling for 

 dumb animals than had the Jews. Their hounds, like their 

 horses, were selected with discrimination, bred with care, 

 and held in high esteem, receiving pet names ; and the 

 literatures of Greece and Rome contain many tributes to the 

 courage, obedience, sagacity, and affectionate fidelity of the 

 dog. The Phoenicians, too, were unquestionably lovers 

 of the dog, quick to recognise the points of special breeds. 

 In their colony in Carthage, during the reign of Sardanapalus, 

 they had already possessed themselves of the Assyrian Mastiff, 

 which they probably exported to far-off Britain, as they are 

 said to have exported the Water Spaniel to Ireland and to 

 Spain. 



It is a significant circumstance when we come to consider 



