ORDER V. THE CARNIVOKA. 81 



be umlcr tlic influence of some straniie excitement. He thiilv irrew worse, 

 antl died at Icngtli in convulsions, on the very day and hour in wliich the 

 attempt was made on tlie life of his master. 



The anecdotes of the Canida;, which have been collected from various 

 quarters, if brought together in one series would form several considerable 

 volumes. We have introduced here all that our limits allow, and we be- 

 lieve a sufficient number to illustrate the peculiar characteristics of these 

 animals. A\'hcn we consider them in all their bearings, and subject these 

 extraordinary facts to a pliilosophical examination, we must be irresistil)ly 

 impelled to the conviction tiuit dogs have been created especially to be 

 the companions and defenders of man, and therefore have been endowed 

 with a higher degree of the reasoning power than many other animals. 

 AVith these facts in view, we can well understand why the wild hunters of 

 the forests regarded their dogs with such superstitious reverence, and be- 

 lieved that they would share in the immortality of their masters ; that, in a 

 word, 



'• In hunting-ground!!, IjoyonJ the western sky, 

 Tlieir faithful dogs sliould bear tliem company." 



Other anecdotes will frequently occur in connection with the descriptive 

 history which will follow hereafter. 



The Dog in Mythology. — The sagacity of the dog as a guide, his 

 efficiency as a watch and protector, and his fidelity as a companion, in a 

 very early age of the world, caused his figure to be employed as symljolical 

 of abstract ideas. His image became the universal designation of fidelity ; 

 his cocrci\e instinct, that of the two hemispheres ; for so the Egyptians 

 typified them on each side of the hawk in their processions, and explained 

 the meaning to be, that these compelled the Sun — the Hawk — to keep 

 his course within the zodiac. In the surgical capacity, they were repre- 

 sented by the embalming priests, who wore masks of black dogs' heads 

 before their faces. In that of watching, the dog Anubis, Sothis, Astrocyon, 

 Ailurus, or Sirius, the Dog-star, — the liiscr, — whose appearance warned 

 the puljlic of the approaching inundation of the Nile. Anubis was also tlic 

 personification of wisdom. In the Egyptian mysteries, the conductor of 

 the neophytes was a representative of Anubis, the conductor of tl)e dead, 

 and wore a costume representing a dog's head. 



In the character of nurse, Thcba — the Bitch — was the Ark ; the 

 preserving and renovating asylum of man. This doctrine spread through 

 all the systems of initiation, classical as well as barbarian, as far as the 

 British Druids. The Egyptians also manifested their fear and abhorrence 

 of the Scythic, or shepherd conquerors, after their ex])ulsion, by sacrificing 

 to the god Tyjjhon (JlcH), rcd-haircd men, oxen, and red dogs. 

 NO. HI. 11 



