NATURAL HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF DOGS. 573 
due only in part to Mohammedan feeling; for we know that some- 
thing of the same kind existed from the earliest times in the coun- 
tries of the East, even in Egypt, where the dog was venerated, 
and in Greece during the ages termed Heroic. It is generally 
believed that the Hindoos have acquired the feelings of their 
Mohammedan tyrants towards the dog; but this is an error. The 
Hindoos, like other people of the East, have numerous unowned 
dogs in their towns ; but, although they are restrained by feelings 
connected with their ideas of the sanctity of food from admitting 
the dog to that familiarity which is customary with us, they have 
a great fondness for him, in which respect they resemble all the 
other members of the Caucasian family not Mohammedan. It is 
the Jews and Mohammedans alone who regard this animal as 
something unhallowed; but it is not they alone who vilify their 
enemies as dogs and the sons of dogs ; for the people of all coun- 
tries, even those who profit the most by the services of the animal, 
employ expressions of hatred and contempt, founded on what they 
conceive to be the most vile and hateful in his attributes. His 
greediness, his uncleanness, his impudence, his quarrelsome temper, 
nay, his submission and fawning, have furnished us with epithets 
wherewith to insult one another. The cause, perhaps, lies no 
deeper than this, that the dog, living in our society, we are able to 
observe his habits and customs, and perhaps to find in them too 
faithful a similitude of some of our own. Were monkeys to live 
amongst us, we should doubtless be able to find in them similar 
traits of character which we might apply to our neighbours, and so 
be as ready to speak of the son of a monkey as the son of a dog*.” 
It is not our intention to enter at this time into the detailed 
history of the domesticated breeds. Some knowledge of that 
history may be sought and obtained, so far, at least, as books can 
give it, from the works named at the head of this article, and from 
others which we need not name. We shall conclude with another 
extract from the volume last quoted, and already noticed by us 
more at length in a preceding Number. 
“But of all the attributes of the dog, those which seem the most 
to have claimed attention, are his attachment to man in general, 
and his fidelity to individuals in particular. The dog very rarely, 
and never but under peculiar circumstances, seeks to gain his 
natural liberty. He prefers to the state of freedom the protection 
of man, and lingers near our dwellings even when he is shunned and 
disowned by us. When he attaches himself to any one, all his 
actions indicate that the relation is one which has a foundation in 
the affections of the animal, and does not vary with the degree of 
VOL. xx. 
* Domesticated Animals, p. 668. 
4 G 
