DOGS AND SAVAGES. 071 



with them, ran up and down tbe church with these beasts, screaming 

 and rolling over each other on the floor. 1 Among tbe country people 

 of India a similar custom prevails, where at a birtb festival boys and 

 girls enact a scene of childbirth, the newborn child being represented 

 by a young dog. 2 Dogs also understand how to distinguish between 

 various religions. In a Chinese writing that treats of the preservation 

 of the purity of the Chinese customs it is said, "The corruption of the 

 foreign devils (i. e., the Roman Catholic Christians) is so great that 

 even pigs and dogs refuse to eat their flesh." 3 



Many people suppose that if dogs are allowed to gnaw the bones of 

 animals pursued in the chase or used for sacrifice the hunt or the offer- 

 ing will prove ineffectual. Among the Eskimos the dogs must not 

 gnaw seal bones while the seal hunt is going on. 4 The Metschers and 

 Mordwinians, the oldest inhabitants of the Tambol Government, after 

 a meal instituted in honor of the war gods, throw the remaining bones 

 into the water so that the dogs may not eat them. 5 When tbe dog 

 fails in his special quality, watchfulness, be deserves punishment ''even 

 to tbe third and fourth generation." The Romans gave to their dogs 

 every year a sound flogging because their forefathers slept during the 

 attack on the capitol by the Gauls while the geese gave the alarm for 

 which they have received so much honor. This custom was even sur- 

 passed in Paris during the time of Louis XIV, when annually, on a 

 set day, many dogs and cats were buried by the magistrates with 

 festival ceremonies on the Place du Greve. 



In Germany, several centuries ago, the killing of dogs was allowed 

 "to flayers and knackers, also to doctors and students of medicine, 

 that they might better learn the human body; further, to apothecaries, 

 that they might thus obtain medicines." 6 Elsewhere, also, such reme- 

 dies have been found efficacious. Tbe Tchuktches sometimes kill a 

 dog in order to anoint and heal the sick with its fat and blood. 7 As a 

 remedy for Filar ia medinensis natives in Kordofan drink beer (merissa) 

 in which dog's excrement has been placed. 8 The fetich Koro, a dog 

 with two heads, is considered in Inshono as very powerful against dis- 

 ease. 9 Through dogs may diseases also be occasioned, as, for example, 

 among the Nubians, where the taking in of a dog's breath may cause 

 "the worst kind of internal disorders." I0 * * * The mandrake root, 

 well known in ancient German and Roman times, appears also with all 



1 Lecky, History of European Morals, II, 135; Deutsche Jiiger-Z. XX, 383. 



2 Zeitschr. f. Ethu. V, 184. 



'Isabella L. Bird, The Golden Chersonese, p. 69. 



4 Klutschak, Als Eskimo unter E., p. 123. Neumayer, Die deutsch. Expedit,, II, 26. 



r 'Ausland, 1884, 29. 



6 Zeitschr. f. deutsche Kulturgesche. N. F. V., 56 et seq. 



7 Sauer, Reise in d. nordl. Gegend von russ. Asien, p. 236. 



8 Marno, Keise in das Gebiet des blau. u. weiss. Nils, p. 405. 



!l Zeitschr. f. Ethn., VI, 9. 



10 Schweinfurth, Im Herz. v. Afrika, II, 344. 



