circumstances, concludes that 50,000 years have passed away since that man lived on the earth. Remains of man have been found in caves and breccias, with implements of stone, bone, and horn, of the Paleolithic period, during the Pleistocene epoch. The ancestors of the British dog first made their appearance here, in the lower Pleistocene era, along with elephants and oxen. They were unknown to the cave men, but their remains appear in the Neolithic age. Professor Owen, in his British Fossil Mammals, ascribes certain canine bones discovered in a British bone cave to canis familiaris, and these are probably the earliest authentic remains of the British dog. After the conquest of Britain by the Romans (see p. 51), dogs are frequently found represented on the Romano-Keltic pottery of Britain, especially on the Durobrivan ware. These dogs commonly fall under one or two types. They are large They are large and fierce, like our present bull dogs and mastiffs, or they resemble a fleet, slender, hunting dog, such as our greyhound. Strabo, who lived in the time of Cæsar, after speaking as the latter did of the numerous herds of cattle to be seen in Britain, adds that "hides, slaves, and dogs of good breeding, useful for hunting, are exported from it. The Kelts also use these and the dogs of their own lands for warlike purposes." The dogs on the lands must have been sheep dogs, who also then, as now, looked after the cattle. Gratius Faliscus, who wrote a poem on dogs, and who is supposed to have lived in the Augustan age, as he is mentioned by Ovid, thus speaks of the British hound : "Quid freta si Morinûm, dubio refluentia ponto, O quanta est merces, et quantum impendia supra ! 1 See an account of the formation of the Deltas of the Mississippi and other rivers, by Draper, Conflict of Religion and Science (Kegan Paul and Co.). 2 See Monumenta Historica Brittanica, 1848, vol. i, p. 141. Protinus hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis, Nemesianius, a Carthaginian poet, also celebrates the hunting dogs of Britain "Sed non Spartanos tantum tantumve Molossos Claudian, who lived about A.D. 400, writing about British dogs, speaks of the Molossus "hunting with tender nose", and again of the "immortal Molossus barking amid the thick mists surrounding the mountain tops". In the end of the sixth century, however, we find King Brochmael Ysgythrawg hunting the hare with "little dogs" (see p. 12). Oppian who lived about 140, says, "There is a certain kind of whelps, apt for tracking game, but of small power; little in size, but worthy of much song; these the fierce tribes of painted Britons rear, and they are known particularly as agassei. In point of size they resemble those good-for-nothing dainty household pets, lap-dogs; round in shape, with very little flesh on their bones, covered with shaggy hair, slow of vision, but armed on their feet with cruel claws, and sharply provided with many poisonous canine teeth. For its scenting powers, however, the agasseus is chiefly renowned, and it is excellent at tracking, since it is very skilled to discover the least footprint of any running game, and even to mark the very taint of its quarry in the air." The Agassei, therefore, were probably the identical dogs that the king was hunting with when the hare fled for refuge to the Virgin Monacella, at Pennant Melangell. Is this breed extinct, or may it not be represented at the present time by the Skye terrier? 1 Nemisianius, Cynegeticon, v. 123. 272 Thi Edinb now d 288 Plas have vivid delic. as w surviv know plane exists Th much depar alter cover spher has 1 enters Protinus hæc una est catulis jactura Britannis, Nemesianius, a Carthaginian poet, also celebrates the hunting dogs of Britain "Sed non Spartanos tantum tantumve Molossos Claudian, who lived about A.D. 400, writing about British dogs, speaks of the Molossus "hunting with tender nose", and again of the "immortal Molossus barking amid the thick mists surrounding the mountain tops". In the end of the sixth century, however, we find King Brochmael Ysgythrawg hunting the hare with "little dogs" (see p. 12). Oppian who lived about 140, says, "There is a certain kind of whelps, apt for tracking game, but of small power; little in size, but worthy of much song; these the fierce tribes of painted Britons. rear, and they are known particularly as agassei. In point of size they resemble those good-for-nothing dainty household pets, lap-dogs; round in shape, with very little flesh on their bones, covered with shaggy hair, slow of vision, but armed on their feet with cruel claws, and sharply provided with many poisonous canine teeth. For its scenting powers, however, the agasseus is chiefly renowned, and it is excellent at tracking, since it is very skilled to discover the least footprint of any running game, and even to mark the very taint of its quarry in the air." The Agassei, therefore, were probably the identical dogs that the king was hunting with when the hare fled for refuge to the Virgin Monacella, at Pennant Melangell. Is this breed extinct, or may it not be represented at the present time by the Skye terrier? 1 Nemisianius, Cynegeticon, v. 123. 2 Oppian, Cynegeticon, i, 468. TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. I have stated, at page 52, that the Druids believed in the transmigration of souls. Many persons believe that Buddhism teaches this doctrine, but Mr. T. W. Rhys Davids, in his Buddhist Birth Stories,' has done his best to correct this misconception, and points out that what it really does teach "would be better summarized as the Transmigration of Character" (p. lxxv). When a man dies, the elements of his body, and with it the whole organization of his consciousness, are dissolved and disappear. "The only thing which continues to exist. when a man dies is his Karma, the result of his words, and thoughts, and deeds (literally his doing')". Out of this there grows a new being, whose condition, habits, and powers, are all determined by the conduct of the individual preceding him in a former birth.2 When one asked Gotama Buddha "What must I do to lay up in store future blessedness?" he replied, "Ministering to the worthy, doing harm to none, And to reflect on the words of Divine Wisdom; Gotama or Gautama Buddha lived about five hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. HUMAN SACRIFICES. Cæsar informs us that the Druids in Britain, when they wished to propitiate the Deity, offered Him human sacrifices, in a way similar to the practice of those na 1 Buddhist Birth Stories. Translated by T. W. Rhys Davids (London: Trübner and Co., 1880). 2 Ibid. 3 "Obligations of the New Testament to Buddhism". Professor J. Estlin Carpenter.-Nineteenth Century, December, 1880. |