24 Gleanings from the 



remember long journeys, and his memory is more 

 retentive than that of any other creature fave man. 

 A dog's attack and rage may be mitigated by the 

 perfon fo afTaulted fitting down quietly on the 

 ground. This belief, as we have fhown, is as old 

 as Homer. The Indians are reported to crofs 

 their dogs with tigers ; the firft and fecond families 

 which refult are condemned as too favage, but the 

 third generation is trained. So cunning are dogs, 

 that in Egypt they run along, lapping the Nile as 

 they go, left by halting crocodiles mould find an 

 opportunity of dragging them in. When Alex- 

 ander the Great was on his march to India, the 

 King of Albania gave him a dog of wonderful 

 fize. Alexander, delighted at its appearance, com- 

 manded bears, boars, and ftags to be flipped to it ; 

 but the creature lay motionlefs in fupreme con- 

 tempt, and at the flothfulnefs of fo huge a form 

 the king's noble fpirit was aroufed, and he bade 

 the dog be killed. His friend now fent another 

 dog of the fame kind to him, with a mefTage that 

 it was only to be matched with lions or elephants, 

 and not with fmall game. The dog foon killed 

 a lion in the prefence of Alexander, and was next 

 matched againft an elephant. Firft of all, with 

 every briftle on its form erefted, the dog bayed 

 and attacked its enemy, firft on one fide, then on 

 the other, flipping in and avoiding the elephant's 

 ftroke wherever an opening prefented itfelf, like a 

 good boxer, until the elephant grew dizzy by per- 

 petually turning round to defend itfelf, and finally 

 falling down, fuccumbed to its petty adverfary. 



