THE LITTLE RED DOG 239 
the low stature, long body, small ears, and blunt 
nose giving him a somewhat stoaty or even reptilian 
appearance among the canines. His red colour is, 
indeed, the commonest hue of the common dog, 
or cur, wherever found. It is rarely a bright red, 
like that of the Irish setter, or any pleasing shade 
of red, as in the dingo, the fox, and the South 
American maned wolf; it is dull, often inclining 
to yellow, sometimes mixed with grey as in the 
jackal, sometimes with a dash of ginger in it. The 
unbeautiful yellowish-red is the prevailing hue of 
the pariah dog. At all events that is the impression 
one gets from the few of the numberless travellers 
in the East who have condescended to tell us any- 
thing about this low-down animal. 
Where the cur or pariah flourishes, there you 
are sure to find the small red dog, and perhaps 
wonder at his ability to maintain his existence. 
He is certainly placed at a great disadvantage. 
If he finds or steals a bone, the first big dog he 
meets will say to him, “Drop it!” And he will 
drop it at once, knowing very well that if he refuses 
to do so it will be taken from him, and his own 
poor little bones perhaps get crunched in the process. 
As compensation he has, I fancy, a somewhat 
quicker intelligence, a subtler cunning. His brains 
weigh less by a great deal than those of the bull- 
dog or a big cur, but—like ladies’ brains compared 
with men’s—they are of a finer quality. 
When I encountered this animal in the quiet 
Somerset road, and laughed to see him and 
