6G4 DOGS AND SAVAGES. 



eaters) is applied by the inhabitants of Sierra Leone to the tribes who 

 use the milk of swine. 1 According to Major,- in the neighborhood of 

 Cape Branco men, horses, and dogs live for months on the milk of the 

 most varied animals, as they also do on honey in South Africa. 



Trade in dog's hides is carried on from northern Asia in two direc- 

 tions — either west to Europe or east to North America; and the farther 

 they are carried the more expensive they become; for while in Obdorsk 

 a good skin costs 6 roubles, 3 in the market of Charkow a black Siberian 

 dog pelt is worth from 50 to 100 roubles. 4 In Paris the pelt is quickly 

 tanned and prepared as fashion demands. 5 The greatest number of 

 dogskins is, however, consumed in eastern Asia itself, though the trade 

 there is now somewhat reduced. On account of the war with Japan, 

 fewer marriages take place in thickly populated China. There were 

 formerly brought to the young bride in Manchuria and Mongolia, as 

 wedding presents, many dogs, which thick-haired curs the young hus- 

 band took with his wife to his new home, then immediately slaughtered 

 them and made from the skins carpets and bed covers. 



The superfluous ones were sold to traders in Chinese ports, and 

 thus dogskins of an annual value of nearly 2,000,000 marks were sent 

 to the United States. As in the Abyssinian monastery Zad' Amba 

 the entire possessions of a pious brother consisted in the half of a goat- 

 skin — his carpet, his bed, his cloak, his all 7 — so also in China the poor 

 and the beggars own nothing but a shabby dog skin 8 that they have 

 found or that has been given them, and the middle classes complete 

 their winter costume by a storm coat of dog or goat skin. The princi- 

 pal export town for colored skins is the port of Liao ho, or Mutschwang, 

 in Manchuria. It was formerly believed that these skins came from 

 ownerless, wandering dogs, but the yellow book of the customs officer 

 of that city at the end of the year 1880 shows that the production of 

 hides is the work of a trade organization. In all Manchuria and on the 

 eastern borders of Mongolia are to be found thousands of flocks of 

 young dogs. The severe cold, with a mean temperature of 33° to 37° 

 F., develops beautiful pelts. Concerning their further preparation, 

 coloring, and the use of the flesh, see "Ausland." 9 In Greenland, 

 where the caribou hunts are unprofitable, skins of seals and dogs are 

 used in preference, the skin of the young dogs especially as a lining for 

 winter boots; still it is very dear. 10 In Grisecke's time such skins were 



1 Burton and Cameron, To the Geld Coast, I, 335. 



2 The Discoveries of Prince Henry, p. 100. 

 3 Finsch, Reise nack Westsibirien, p. 372. 



4 Kohl, Reise im Innern vom Russland und Polen, 206 et seq. 

 . 5 Schweiz.Zeitsch.f. Jagd-u. Liebhaber, 1892. 183. 

 6 Hamb. Correspondent von 2, 11, 1894. 

 7 Zeitschr. f. allg. Erdk. N. F. XII, 211. 

 8 Exner, China, p. 162. 

 9 1889, 337. 



10 Noidenskiold, Grouland, p. 429; Natur. 1887, 536; von Becker, Arkt. Reise der 

 Pandora, p. 16. 



