662 DOGS AND SAVAGES. 



among the Mongolian peoples, a complete indifference to the corpses of 

 the " misera plebs." Before the year 1000 such bodies were given as 

 prey to dogs — in Bactria according to Ouesicritus, by the Hyrcauians 

 according to Cicero, by the Sogdians according to Strabo. Th. v. Bayer 1 

 remarks that with the Kalmucks the bodies of the inferior classes are 

 thrown after death, either into the water or out on the steppes for the 

 dogs, vultures, etc., to devour; the better classes are, however, burned. 

 A similar fate for the corpses of beggars in Kuldja is mentioned by 

 Badloff 2 . In Urga, writes Prschewalsky, 3 the beggars have their nest- 

 like beds in the market place. If one be about to die the dogs stand 

 around him and wait for his last breath; he is then devoured. The 

 dead of better classes are carried to the churchyard, dogs make up the 

 procession and conduct the interment by means of their stomachs; only 

 princes, gogos, and the highest lamas are really buried. In the well- 

 known parable of Lazarus, who ate the crumbs which fell from a rich 

 man's table, the dogs came and licked his sores. Would anything very 

 different have befallen his body after his soul had flown to Heaven? If 

 in the cities of China, according to Exner's account, 4 a beggar is dying, 

 his identity is determined by officers, he is allowed to lie where he is, 

 covered with mats held down with stones so that the dogs can not 

 trouble him while alive; as soon as he is dead, however, they do their 

 duty. The Kamchatkans believe in the life of the soul after the death 

 of the body ? and in the warm desire for this better life the father often 

 allows his children to strangle him or to throw him to the dogs. 5 In 

 caves of Poland thus far examined, traces of human industry have been 

 found, but no human bones; this was held as a negative indication of 

 the former occupation by Mongols, 6 who gave the dead to the dogs; a 

 positive indication, however, was found in the names of places as sagen 

 Mongolian zagan = white, zebrzyclowo, zebr = wo\f-, Karsy, Kars — 

 steppe fox, and many others. It is an interesting fact 7 that exactly in 

 the center of the wide district through which we find scattered the 

 place name Psar lies the dog field at Breslau, Psie polje = Pasje polje. 

 The Polish chronologist, Vine. Kadlubek, mentions this dog field at the 

 beginning of the thirteenth century, and says concerning it that here in 

 the year 1109 a battle took place between the Polish Prince Boleslaw 

 and the German Emperor. The Germans were overcome, many were 

 left lying on the battlefield, and the dogs swarmed from all sides and 

 devoured the flesh until they were so gorged that they went mad; 

 " caninum campestre locus ille nominatur." But an older chronologist, 



1 Reiseeindriicke aus Russland, p. 435. 



2 Aus Westsibirien, II, 312. 



3 Peterm. Mitth., 1876, 8. 



4 China, p. 163. 



5 Peschel, Volkerkunde, p. 416; Zeitschr. f. EthnoL, III, 206. 



6 Prschewalsky, Reisen in der Mongolei, XIII, 5. 



7 Deutsche Rundschau f. Geogr. u. Stat., XV, 414. 



