214 



THE BEASTS OF PREY. 



Signs of Health The best sign of a Dog's health is a 

 and Sickness cold, moist nose. If the nose be- 

 in Dogs. comes dry and hot, if the eyes be- 



come blear and the appetite fails, one may be sure 

 that the Dog is ill. If his condition does not rap- 

 idly improve and the remedies prescribed by a good 

 veterinary surgeon have no effect, there is little 

 hope for recovery; for few Dogs live through seri- 

 ous disease. Wounds heal quickly and well, fre- 

 quently without any assistance; but diseases of the 



THE DANISH DOG. One of the noblest of Dogs, and the handsomest of the Mastiff 



■group, is the Danish Dog. The long legs give it great running ability, and the strong body and limbs 

 confer upon the animal great powers ot endurance, while the eyes speak kindness and intelligence. 

 (^Canis familiaris molossus danicus.) 



inner organs generally baffle even experienced phy- 

 sicians, and bunglers still more surely, and such dis- 

 eases end fatally in a surprisingly short time. 

 Great Useful- The usefulness of the Dog can not be 

 ness of the easily overestimated. Every reader 

 ^off- knows from experience what "k part the 



Dog plays with civilized peoples, but the animal is 

 still more important to savage and uncivilized tribes. 

 His flesh is eaten on the South Sea Islands, and by 

 sundry African tribes, the Tungus, Chinese, Eskimos, 

 North American Indians, etc. In China one often 

 sees butchers carrying slain Dogs, and those bearing 

 such burdens always have to defend themselves 

 against the attacks of other Dogs, which fun about 

 and attack them in packs. Let us here mention 

 another relation between Man and Dog, which may 

 seem to us horrid and uncanny : since Bernardin de 

 St. Pierre gave utterance to the idea that Dog-eating 

 was the first step towards the eating of Man, anthro- 

 pology has gathered many facts tending to confirm 

 the opinion that the habit of consuming Dog's flesh 

 is either a precursor, an accompaniment, or a remnant 

 of the cannibal habit. 



Even where the Dog is occasionally or regularly 

 used as an article of food, he still is the companion 

 and assistant of Man. In the tropics he serves, in 

 the capacities of sentinel and assistant in the chase, 

 even those people of the lowest races who have no 

 individual name for him; while the northern nations 

 would be helpless without him, for he drags their 

 sleds over the deserts of ice and snow, or carries the 

 hunter's outfit on his back, like a beast of burden. 

 In northern Asia Dog furs are manufactured into 

 clothing, and even in Germany caps, 

 pouches and muffs are made out of 

 them. The bones and tendons serve 

 to make glue; the tough, thin skin is 

 tanned and made into shoes and 

 gloves, while the hair is used as a 

 stufiSng in upholstery. Dog's fat is 

 utilized to make wagon -grease, and 

 was formerly used as a medicine, in 

 consumption. On the field of battle 

 in former times. Dogs were also used: 

 not as it is in our day proposed to 

 use them, as trained warners and 

 fleet-footed messengers easily escap- 

 ing detection, but as real fighters by 

 the side of the warriors. When the 

 Spaniards were subjecting the coun- 

 tries of the New World, the Blood- 

 houndfe played no small part as fight- 

 ing companions, and many of these 

 animals were esteemed for their 

 bravery and distinguished deeds of 

 daring, and were honored as much 

 as any hero among the greedy army 

 of the conquerors. Like all partici- 

 pants in those fights and pillages, 

 these Dogs, or, rather, their masters 

 for them, received their share of 

 booty. Later on, up to very recent 

 times, it was usual to track escaped 

 slaves or subjugated natives, who 

 had deserted the yoke of the Euro- 

 peans, by Bloodhounds into the very 

 wilderness; [and similar methods 

 were sometimes resorted to in recap- 

 turing fugitive Negroes during the 

 days of slavery in the United States]. 

 The usefulness of Dogs was appre- 

 ciated in the oldest times; but the treatment they 

 received and the esteem accorded them varied much. 

 Socrates was wont to swear by the Dog; Alexander 

 the Great was so afflicted at the early death of his 

 favorite Dog that he built a city with temples in 

 honor of the lamented animal. Homer sings in a 

 touching manner the praises of Odysseus' Dog, 

 Argus. Pliny valued Dogs highly and narrated 

 many things about them ; he stated, for instance, 

 that the Colophonians kept great herds of Dogs on 

 account of their constant wars, and that the Dogs 

 were first in the attack and did not scruple to take 

 part in any battle. When Alexander the Great went 

 to India, the king of Albania made him a present of 

 a Dog of immense size, which pleased Alexander 

 very much. He pitted Bears, Wild Boars and other 

 animals against him, but the Dog lay quite still and 

 did not get up. Alexander believed him to be lazy 

 and ordered him killed. When the king heard of 

 this, he sent another Dog of the same breed, with a 

 message that Alexander should not send weak ani- 

 mals against him, but Lions and Elephants. The 

 king had had only two such Dogs, and if Alex- 



