DOGS AND SAVAGES. 667 



I may here briefly touch upon the use of the word dog as a term of 

 reproach. In the Old Testament, by the Arabs, and especially by most 

 Mohammedans, the word dog is an abusive epithet. 1 Among the 

 Usbegs, while it is an impropriety to ask after a man's wife, to ask after 

 his dog is a deadly insult, says Wood,- the epithet "dogseller" is the 

 deepest of insults. In the fourth century B. C. Yaska was of the opin- 

 ion that the name dog was sometimes applied to express contempt. 3 

 In Latin, canis, as an epithet always referred to some special trait of the 

 dog (impudicity, cowardice, a snarling temper) and was not, as with us, 

 an expression of exasperated contempt. 4 Must that not also have been 

 the case in Halle in the fifteenth century, where it was the custom to 

 give to men zoological names (Tyle-dog, Heinz-ape, Fritz-sheep, pigsty, 

 etc.). 5 In a recent political election speech in Newcastle, Mr. Morley 

 referred to the abusive use of the word "dog," declaring that he could 

 not look upon it as an insult, for most dogs that he knew deserved to 

 be placed higher than many men. The following sections will clearly 

 show that many races take the same view. 



It is a truly human trait to first recognize the worth of another after 

 his death. This is exemplified by mauy of the hunting peoples of North 

 America. The dog, the most faithful of the domestic animals, whose 

 fidelity is recognized by the Koran, and who is therefore allowed to 

 participate in the joys of the Mohammedan paradise, is cruelly treated 

 by them while living, but when he dies and is transported to the happy 

 hunting grounds they do honor to his bones. They will not offend his 

 spirit because they will find him again in the after life.'' Among the 

 old Mexicans and Mayas he accompanied the dead in their passage to 

 the other side; 7 among the mound-builders of Nashville, Tennessee, 8 

 and among the Eskimos y he was placed in the graves of young children 

 who could not alone find their way to the spirit land. Dogs thus became 

 the guardians of the threshold at the entrance to the nether world. 

 According to the Zendavesta, certain dogs have the power of protect- 

 ing departed spirits from the demons lying in wait for them on the 

 perilous passage of the narrow bridge over the abyss of hell; and a 

 dog is always led in funeral processions and made to look at the corpse. 10 



According to Synesius (fifth century), Cerberus held the position as 



1 Hornniel, Namen der Situgethiere Lei den Siidsemitischen Volkern, p. 311. 



2 Journey to the Source of the River Oxus, p. 143, and also Von Hellwald, Natur- 

 geschichte des Menschen, II, 613. 



3 Max Miiller, Vorlesungen iiber die Wissenschaft der Sprache, p. 374. 

 4 Ausland, 1871, 170. 



fi G. F. Hertzberg, Gesch. d. Stadt Halle, I, 425. 

 6 Waitz,III, 194. 



7 Bancroft, Native Races, II, 605 ; Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1888, 20 et seq. ; Congres 

 iuternat. des Ainericanistes, 1888, Berlin, 1890, p. 308 et seq., 321 et seq. 



8 Archiv Anthrop., Ill, 370; Biir, Der vorgeschichtliche Meusch, p. 474. 



9 Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1872, 238 ; Nordenskiold, Gronland, pp. 385, 474, 475. 

 I0 Verhandl. des 5 Geogr. Tages, p. 107; Forbes, A Naturalist's Wanderiugs in the 



Eastern Archipelago, p. 100, remark. 



