Aeient AMtyrimn Hanting-dog« — ^From a SUh in the British Musenm.
cenes. The street-dog, without master, apparentiy erived fh>m the rufous-cur, and in Egypt partaking f the mongrel greyhound, often more or less bare,
with a mangy, unctuous skin, fre- quently with several teeth want- ing, was, as it now is, considered a defiling animal. It is to animals of this class, which no dopbt fol- lowed the camp of Israel, and hung on its skirts, that allusion is more particularly made in Exod. xxi, 31, for the same custom exists at this day, and the race of street- dogs still retains their ancient hab- its (Prosp. Alpin. Eer, jEgypt. iv, 8, p. 230 sq. ; Russel, ^12^^, ii, 65 ; Bosenmttllcr, Morgtn. iv, 76). A portion of the Cairo packs annual- ly become hajis^ and go and return with the caravan to Mecca, while others come from Damascus, act- ing in the same manner; and it is known that the pilgrims from the banks of the Indus are similarly attended to Kerbela : indeed, ev- ery caravan is so, more or less, by these poor animals. But with regard to the dogs that devoured Jezebel, and licked up Ahab*s blood (1 Kings xxi, 23), they may have been of the wild races, a species of which is reported to have particularly infested the banks of the Kishon and the district of Jezreel. In il- lustration of this shocking end of Jezebel, it may be re- marked that the more than half-wild street-dogs of the East, living upon their own resources, and without own- ers, soon make rapid clearance of the flesh of dead bod- ies left exposed, whether of human creatures or beasts (Bruce, Trav. iv, 81). Among other instances, it is re- corded that a number of Indian pilgrims were drowned by the sinking of a ferr^'-boat in which they were cross- ing a river. Two days afterwards a spectator relates : " On my approaching several of these sad vestiges of mortality, I perceived that the flesh bad been com- pletely devoured from the bones by the Pariah dogs, vultures, and other obscene animals. The only por- tion of the several corpses I noticed that remained entire and untouched were the bottom* of the feet and msides ffthe hands, a circumstance that may afford a corroborative proof of the rooted antipathy the dog has to prey upon the human hands and feet. Why such should be the case remains a mystery*' (Kitto's Daily lUust. in loc.). Stanley {S. and P. p. 850) states that he saw on the very site of Jezreel the descend- ants of the dogs that devoured Jezebel, prowling on the mounds without the walls for offal and carrion thrown out to them to consume ; and Wood, in his Journal to the source of the Oxus, complains that the dog has not yet arrived at his natural position in the social state (compare Strabo, xvii, 821 ; Burckhardt, TVav. ii, 870). The dog was employed, however, in sacrifice by some ancient nations (Pausan. iii, 14, 9 ; Amob. iv, 25 ; Julian, Orat. v, p. 176 ; Pliny, xviii, 69 ; comp. Saubert, De sacrific. c. 23, p. 518 sq.), and was even sometimes eaten (Plutarch, De toUert, am- mal. c. 2 ; Justin, xix, 1). The cities of the East are still greatiy disturbed in the night by the bowlings of
Eutern Street or Bazaar Dogi.
DOGMA
864
DOGMATIC THEOIX>GT
•treei-dogt, who, it seems, were similarly noisy- in an- cient times, the fitct being noticed in Psa. lix, 6, 14 ; and dnmb or silent dogs are not unfireqaently seen, inch as Isaiah allndes to (Ivi, 10). The same passage has reference to tiie peculiarly fitful sleep of the dog, and his sadden start as if during a dream (see J. G. Hichaelis, Ob$erv, 8aer, ii, 50 sq.).
The dog was used by the Hebrews as a watch for their houses (Isa. Ivi, 10 ; comp. Iliad^ xxiii, 178 ; OdjfM. xvii, 809), and for guarding their flocks (Job xzx, 1 ; comp. IHad^ x, 188 ; xii, 302 ; Yarro, J2. i2. ii, 9 ; Colum. Tii, 12; see Thomson, Lamd and Book^ i, 801). Then also, as now, troops of hungry and semi-wild dogs used to wander about the fields and streets of the cities, de- vouring dead bodies and other ofikl (1 Kings xiv, 11 ; XTi,4; xxi,19,28; xxli,88; 2 Kings U, 10, 86 ; Jer. XT, 8 ; Psa. lix, 6, 14), and thus became such objects of dislike (comp. Harmar, i, 198 sq. ; H6st, Nachr, o. MarokkOj p. 294; Joliffe, p. 827) that fierce and cruel enemies are poetically styled dogs in Psa. xxii, 16, 20 (bw Jer. xv, 8; comp. Joseph. Anl, xv, 8, 4; Homer, iSf. xvii, 255 ; xxii,885). Moreover, the dog, being an unclean animal (Isa. Ixvi, 8 ; Matt, vii, 6 ; comp. Hor- ace, J^. i, 2, 26), as still in the East (Arvieux, iii, 189; Hasselquist, p. 109), and proverbially filthy in its food (Prov. xxvi, 11 ; 2 Pet ii, 22), the terms %, tkai dog, dog's head were used as terms of reproach, or of humil- ity in speaking of one's self (1 Sam. xxiv, 14 ; 2 Sam. iii, 8; ix, 8; xvi, 9; 2 Kings viii, 18). Knox relates a stoiy of a nobleman of Ceylon, who, being asked by the king how many children he had, repUed, " Your majesty's dog has three puppies." Throughout the whole East ** dog" is a term of reproach for impure and profime persons, and in this sense is used by the Jews respecting the QentUee (Rev. xxii, 15 ; compare SchOttgen, Hor, Bth. i, 1145), and by Mohammedans respecting ChristUns (Wetstein, i, 424 ; ii, 274). The wanton nature of the dog is another of its characteris- tics, and there can be no doubt that ^ba in'Deut xxiii, 18 means a male prostitute (I. q. U^^p) ; comp. Ecclus. xxvi, 25, ^^A thcandeM tooman shall be counted as a dogi" (Hesych. m/Wc dvaiSiiQ), We still use the name of one of the noblest creatures in the world as a term of contempt (comp. Athen. vi, 270). To ask an Uzbek to sell his wife would be no afi^ont, but to ask him to sell his dog an unpardonable insult — Suggerfe- roshj or dog-seller, being the most offensive epithet that one Uzbek can apply to another. The addition of the article (roif KwapioiQ^ Matt xv, 26 ; Mark vii, 27) im- plies that the presence of dogs was an ordinaiy feature of Eastern life in our Saviour's time. When Christ says in Matt xv, 26, ** It is not meet to take the chil- dren's bread and cast it to the dogs," by the children are meant the Jews ; by the dogs, the Gentiles. In the Rabbinical writings the question is put, " What does a dog mean?" and the answer is, ''One who b uncircnmcised." The dog and the sow are mentioned together in Isa. Ixvi, 8 ; Matt, vii, 6 ; 2 Pet ii, 22, as being alike impure and unacceptable. Paul calls the &l8e apostles dogs on account of their impurity and love of gain (Phil, iii, 2 ; see Simon, Kvi/o/BXct/zuz, a Pernio mandatay Smalcald, 1747). Those who are shut out of the kingdom of heaven are caUed dogs, sorcer- ers, etc (Rev. xxii, 15), where the word is applied to aU kinds of vUe persons, as it is to a particular class in Deut xxiii, 18. (See Wemyss's SynOfol. DicL)