Treatment by Jews and Mahommedans.

51

whatever source, was effected at a very early period of the history of man. Indeed, there is no period of that history, except the earliest, in which we cannot trace him as more or less the friend and ally of the human race. Along with the bull, the ram, and the goat, his companions in servitude, we find him represented not only as a sign in the heavens, but honoured by a place in either hemisphere, first beneath the feet of the southern Orion, and again more northerly as indicating Sirius, the brightest of the fixed stars, the heliacal rising of which, corresponding to the full swelling of the Nile, marked the commencement of the Ethiopian and Egyptian year. His form is exhibited on the most ancient monuments of human art,-in the sombre excavations of the early Indians, the mysterious chambers of the great Nilotic sepulchres, the now ruined glories of Persepolis. He was not only sculptured, but consecrated, sacrificed, even adored by many nations, and forms a frequent feature in the mythological systems of ancient Greece and Rome. But one remarkable exception occurred in early times, which has no doubt materially affected the condition of many of the existing canine races over a large surface of our globe. The worship of the dog was interdicted to the Jews, under the most dreadful denunciations; he was proclaimed to be unclean; and even the price which might be obtained for him was classed with the wages of sin, and was not to pollute the temple of the living God.*

"The people of this family," observes Professor Low, "adhering to the letter of their stern laws amidst all the fortunes of their unhappy race, even now entertain much of their ancient feelings towards this gift of Providence. Nay more, the Arabs, taught by an impostor, who derived much of what he taught from Jewish usages, have conceived something of the same feelings towards this creature. But the Arabs cannot dispense with the services of the dog amid their own wild deserts of sand, and much less when they have passed beyond them; and all the restraints of superstition have been unable to prevent the freest use of the dog in the countries to which the Arabian faith has extended. Yet every where in countries of Mohammedans, the dog is regarded as something unhallowed and unclean. The true believer, indeed, will not shed the blood of the dog, but he will not afford him the shelter of his dwelling, nor admit him to that companionship for which Nature has fashioned him. Hence, in Mohammedan countries, the dog rarely assumes that docility which he elsewhere possesses; and hence much of that multiplication of unowned dogs in

*The student of Scriptural Zoology will no doubt also bear in mind the fact, that while in the Sacred Records frequent mention is made of nets and snares, and of the pursuit and capture of wild animals, there is no allusion throughout the whole of the Jewish history to the use of dogs in hunting.

eastern towns, which live on garbage, and share with the hyenas and vultures the task of removing impurities. This, indeed, is due only in part to Mohammedan feeling; for we know that something of the same kind existed from the earliest times in the countries 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 countries, 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 benefits conferred. The dog that shares the lot of the miserable and poor, is no less faithful than

* Domes icated Animals, p. 668.

Instances of Fidelity.

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another that enjoys all that can gratify the senses. The peasant boy, who rears up his little favourite in his cabin of mud, and shares with it his scanty crust, has a friend as true as he who has ease and abundance to bestow. Release, from the cord of the blind beggar, the dog that leads him from door to door, and will he follow you a step for all with which you can tempt his senses? Confine him in your mansion, and feed him with the waste of plenteous repasts, and let his forJorn companion approach your door to crave a scrap of food, and the dog will fly to him with fidelity unshaken, and bound with joy to be allowed once more to share his miserable lot. Again and again has the dog of the humblest and poorest remained faithful to the last, and laid himself down to die on the grave of his earliest friend.

"Recently, a poor boy in a manufacturing town had contrived, from his hard earnings, to rear up a little dog. The boy, as he was passing along to his daily work, was struck down, and dreadfully maimed, by the fall of some scaffolding. He was carried on a shutter, mangled and bleeding, to an hospital near, attended by the dog. When he was brought to the door, the dog endeavoured to enter along with him; but being shut out, he laid himself down. Being driven beyond the outer gate, he went round and round the walls, searching for any opening by which he could enter. He then lay down at the gate, watching every one who entered with wistful eyes, as if imploring admittance. Though continually repulsed, he never left the precincts night or day, and even before the wounded boy had breathed his last, the faithful dog, struck with total paralysis, had ceased to live. It is well known that the soldiers of the French levies were often mere boys, brought from their country homes, to undergo at once all the rigours of the service. They were often accompanied by their little dogs, who followed them as best they could. Often, after the carnage of a desperate field, these dogs have been found stretched on the mangled bodies of their youthful friends. A French officer, mortally wounded in the field, was found with his dog by his side. An attempt having been made to seize a military decoration on the breast of the fallen officer, the dog, as if conscious how much his master had valued it, sprung fiercely at the assailants. An unfortunate soldier, condemned for some offence to die, stood bandaged before his comrades appointed to give the fatal volley, when his dog, a beautiful spaniel, rushed wildly forward, flew into his arms to lick his face, and for a moment interrupted the sad solemnity. The comrades, with tears in their eyes, gave the volley, and the two friends fell together. A youthful conscript, severely wounded in the terrible field of Eylau, was carried to the hospital amongst hundreds of his fellows. Many days afterwards, a little dog had found its way, no one knew how, into the place, and amongst the wounded, the dying, and the dead, had searched out his early friend. The fainting boy was found by the attendants with the dog beside him licking his hands. The youth soon breathed his last, and a kind comrade took charge of the dog: but the animal would take no food, pined away, and shortly died. And a thousand

other examples might be given of an affection in this creature unaltered by changes of fortune, and enduring to the last."*

Who has not heard of the unfortunate pilgrim of Helvellyn, and of his faithful dog-faithful even in death-immortalized alike by the Bard of Chivalry and the Laurel-honouring Laureate? We entirely concur with Mr. Youatt in his opinion, that while poverty may drive from a cold hearth many a companion of our happier hours, it was never known to diminish the love of one canine attendant.

ART. III.-1. General Report of the Sanitary Condition of the labouring Population of Great Britain. Presented to both Houses of Parliament.

2. Report of Health of Towns from Select Committee of House of Commons.

IN one of the volumes of the Minutes of Committee of Council on Education, of which one or more now appears annually, we find a Report from one of the English inspectors on the state of education in Norfolk, and another from the pen of one of the Scotch inspectors on the educational state of the county of Haddington. The educational contrast of these two agricultural counties, lying within a few hours' sail of each other, is remarkable. The county of Norfolk is, like Haddington, a rich agricultural county. It contains not less than 750 parishes, more than two-thirds of the number of parishes in all Scotland. The average population of these 750 parishes is little more than 500 souls; and its parish churches lie so close to each other as to appear at every turn of the road or of the coast. In such a state of ecclesiastical sufficiency, one would have expected the intellectual and moral returns to have been amongst the highest in the kingdom, and that Norfolk would have been a great moral and intellectual garden. What says the inspector of the Church of England?

"Very few adults of either sex can read or write. An opinion prevails, that those who remain of the preceding generation more commonly possessed those acquisitions. A female has officiated as clerk in a parish for the last two years, none of the adult males being able to read. In another parish the present clerk is the only man in the rank of a labourer who can read. In another, of 400 souls, when

* Domesticated Animals, p. 693.]

Condition of Glasgow.

55

the present school was established two years ago, no labourer could read or write. A Dissenting minister addressing a small congregation, was lately interrupted by a cry of Glory be to your name! He immediately repressed the cry, explaining that such language could be used only to the Deity. The answer was- Then glory be to both of you! This," says the inspector, "I have too much reason to believe is a characteristic fact, the suppression of which would therefore disguise the truth."-Minutes of C. of C. on Educ. 1840-41.

We need not quote any part of the Haddington Report. Of no part, no rural part of Scotland, from John o' Groat's House to the Mull of Galloway, could such an anecdote be told as a characteristic fact. The Church in Scotland has nowhere so failed in her great duty as the educator of the people. But let us rejoice with trembling. It is said of the capercailzie, the cock of the north, which the Marquis of Breadalbane is again seeking to restore to the woods of Scotland, that when he crows he shuts his eyes, and the German sportsman chooses the moment of his crowing to take his aim and bring him down from his perch. Low as the education of letters is in the county of Norfolk, not so is the education in those physical and social habits which preserve and promote health and home-happiness, and inspire self-respect. Of the habits of the poor Norwich weavers, very little, if at all, above the weavers of Paisley in the amount of their weekly earnings, the same inspector thus writes:

"One marked and favourable peculiarity even amongst the poorest Norwich weavers, is their strict attention to cleanliness and decency in their dwellings-a token of self-respect and a proof of ideas and habits, of which the severest privations in food and dress did not seem to be able to deprive them. Their rooms might be destitute of all the necessary articles of furniture, but the few that remained were clean, the walls and staircases whitewashed, the floors carefully swept and washed, the court or alley cleared of every thing offensive, the children wearing shoes and stockings, however sorry in kind, and the clothes not ragged, however incongruously patched and darned. Cleanliness and propriety,' said one man, are, in spite of our poverty, the pride of Norwich people, who would have nothing to say to dirty neigh bours.'"

Let us now see what an Englishman says of Glasgow and its wynds. Mr. Symonds, the Government Commissioner, thus describes the filth of our Scottish towns:—

"The wynds in Glasgow comprise a fluctuating population of from 15,000 to 30,000 persons. This quarter consists of a labyrinth of lanes, out of which numberless entrances lead into small square courts, and with a dunghill reeking in the centre. Revolting as was the outward appearance of these places, I was little prepared for the filth and