672 



me worthy of at tention, it was this dumb variety 

 that was eaten in preference in Mexico P, and at 

 the Oroonoko. A very well informed traveller, 

 Mr. Giesecke, who resided six years in Green- 

 land, assured me, that the dogs of the Eskirnoes, 

 which pass their lives in the open air, and bury 

 themselves in winter beneath the snow, equally 

 do not bark, but howl like wolves-f . 



The practice of eating the flesh of dogs is now' 

 entirely unknown on the banks of the Oroonoko; 

 but, as it is a Tartar custom spread through 

 all the eastern part of Asia, it appears to me 

 highly interesting for the history of nations, to 

 have ascertained, that it existed heretofore in the 

 hot regions of Guyana, and on the table-lands of 

 Mexico. I must observe also, that on the con- 

 fines of the province of Durango, at the northern 

 extremity of New Spain, the Cumanches have 

 preserved the habit of loading the backs of the 

 great dogs, that accompany them in their migra- 



* See on the Mexican techichi, and on the numerous diffi- 

 culties, that occur in the history of mute dogs, and dogs des- 

 titute of hair, my Tableaux de la Nature, vol. i, p. 117-124. 



+ They sit down in a circle 3 one of them begins to howl 

 alone, and the others follow in the same tone. Thegroupes 

 ofalouate monkeys howl in the same manner, and among 

 them the Indians distinguish " the leader of the band." See 

 above, vol. iv, p. 267. It was the practice at Mexico to cas" 

 trate the mute dogs, in order to fatten them. This operation 

 must have contributed to alter the organ of the voice. See 

 Antiqued, del Mex. por el Cardinal Lorenscma, p. 103. 



