672 DOGS AND SAVAGE*. 



its power in the country of the upper Nile, where its possession gives 

 the greatest good fortune to man. When fastened to the tail of a dog, 

 to be torn up by the roots, it cries. 1 One of the most remarkable out- 

 growths of superstition is the ffxvXoya^os; that is to say, the holding 

 of the so-called dog's marriage at Cyprus, as an approved means for 

 curing the bite of a mad dog. If anyone was bitten in this way, he 

 must, exactly forty days thereafter, celebrate a dog's marriage, at 

 which he must heartily eat, drink, and dance; he must not sleep during 

 the next night, and the poison of the rabies will pass off by transpira- 

 tion. 2 In the tradition of the sea of quicksilver the metal can be 

 collected only by means of dogs-skins sewed together. 3 Concerning 

 the dog in Persian mythology, compare Gerlach, and concerning the 

 holy fire of the Gebers in the Jezd oasis, in which were 72 to 75 differ- 

 ent materials, among which a widow and a dog, see Bitter. 4 



The portents of clogs in folklore are treated at length in "Ausland," 5 

 but to what is there said I may add a few remarks. The Mbocavies 

 (Pampas) think that certain of the stars are an ostrich that is pur-, 

 sued by the heavenly dogs. The moon is a man, and when it suffers 

 eclipse its entrails are torn out by dogs. 6 In Mongolian mythology it 

 is said that the moon in the shape of a yellow dog has licked his own 

 chops. 7 In the time reckoning of many peoples the dog also plays a 

 part. "The Cambodians, like all peoples who have taken from China 

 the elements of their calendar, use for designation of time a duodenary 

 cycle, each year of which bears the name of an animal — chachien." 8 

 So also in Siam, Aunam, among the eastern Khirghises, etc. 9 Among 

 the converted Indians of Istlavacan not only is a month called after 

 the dog, but also a day in each month. 10 



Hunters and shepherds among the most different peoples know that 

 their dogs understand exactly their speech and gestures, and so do 

 those that busy themselves much with dogs, 11 and conversely the mas- 

 ters understand the various notes of the voices of the dogs that have 

 become much modified by the contact with civilization and under the 

 training of man. On that account the inhabitants of the Gold Coast 

 formerly believed that European dogs could talk, and in Unyoro the 

 tradition is current that dogs were once endowed with speech. 1 * That 



1 Friedlander, Sittengesch. Eoms I, 436. Marno loc. cit., p. 244. 



2 Ohnefalsch-Rickter in Unsere Zeit 1884, H. 3, p. 365. 



3 Haxtkausen, Transkaukasien, p. 323. 



4 Gerlach, Seelentkiitigkeit, p. 2. Ritter, in Zeitsckr. f. allg. Erdk. V, 79. 

 6 1891, 874. 



e Waitz, III, 472. 



7 Zeitsckr. f. Ethn., VI (107). 



8 Lagree et Gamier, Voyage d'Explorat. en Indochine, I, 93. 



9 Ed. Hildekrandt, Reise urn die Erde, 1873, p. 160; Giglioli, Viaggio intorno al 

 gloko, p. 319; Ritter, Erdk., II, 1124; Prschewalsky, Reisen in der Mongolei, p. 55. 



10 Waitz, IV, 175; v. Sckerzer, Aus Natur- unci Volksleben ini trop. Amerika, p. 175. 



11 Audr. Stengel, Die Anfiinge der Sprache, p. 18; Bastian, Sprackvergl. Stndien, 

 p. 18. 



,2 Histoire generate des voyages, X, 115; Cote d'Or, according to Artkus, p. 80; 

 Peterm. Mittk., 1879, 391. 



