Page:Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.djvu/377

 another matter, and those who are so defiled we call dirty pigs.

A surly dog. A human being of a surly temper, like a surly dog.

''Is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing? ''(2 Kings viii. 12, 13). Hazael means, "Am I such a brute as to set on fire the strongholds of Israel, slay the young men with the sword, and dash their children to the ground, as thou, Elijah, sayest I shall do when I am king?"

Sydney Smith being asked if it was true that he was about to sit to Landseer, the animal painter, for his portrait, replied, in the words of Hazael, "What! is thy servant a dog, that he should do this thing?"

The Thracian dog. Zoïlus.

Dogs of war. The horrors of war, especially famine, sword, and fire.

(6), whether dead or living, is a most degrading expression: "After whom is the King of Israel come out? After a dead dog?" (1 Sam. xxiv. 14.) "Beware of dogs" (Phil. iii. 2), i.e. sordid, noisy professors. Again, "Without are dogs" (Rev. xxii. 15), i.e. false teachers and sinners, who sin and return to their sins (2 Peter ii. 21).

There is no expression in the Bible of the fidelity, love, and watchful care of the dog, so highly honoured by ourselves.

(7).

Dog, in mediæval art, symbolises fidelity.

A dog is represented as lying at the feet of St. Bernard, St. Benignus, and St. Wendelin; as licking the wounds of St. Roch; as carrying a lighted torch in representations of St. Dominic.

Dogs in monuments. The dog is placed at the feet of women in monuments to symbolise affection and fidelity, as a lion is placed at the feet of men to signify courage and magnanimity. Many of the Crusaders are represented with their feet on a dog, to show that they followed the standard of the Lord as faithfully as a dog follows the footsteps of his master.

(8) :

Barking dogs seldom bite. (See .)

Dog don't eat dog. Ecclesia ecclesiam non decimat; government letters are not taxed; church lands pay no tithes to the church.

A black dog has walked over him. Said of a sullen person. Horace tells us that the sight of a black dog with its pups was an unlucky omen. (See .)

A dog in the manger. A churlish fellow, who will not use what is wanted by another, nor yet let the other have it to use. The allusion is to the well-known fable of a dog that fixed his place in a manger, and would not allow an ox to come near the hay.

Every dog has his day. In Latin, "Hodie mihi, cras tibi." "Nunc mihi, nunc tibi, benigna" [fortuna]. In German, "Heute mir, morgen dir." You may crow over me to-day, but my turn will come by-and-by. The Latin proverb, "Hodie mihi," etc., means, "I died to-day, your turn will come in time." The other Latin proverb means, fortune visits every man once. She favours me now, but she will favour you in your turn.

Give a dog a bad name and hang him. If you want to do anyone a wrong, throw dirt on him or rail against him.

Gone to the dogs. Gone to utter ruin; impoverished.

He has not a dog to lick a dish. He has quite cleared out. He has taken away everything.

''He who has a mind to beat his dog will easily find a stick. In Latin, "Qui vult cædere canem facile invenit fustem.''" If you want to abuse a person, you will easily find something to blame. Dean Swift says, "If you want to throw a stone, every lane will furnish one."

"To him who wills, ways will not be wanting." "Where there's a will there's a way."

Hungry dogs will eat dirty pudding. Those really hungry are not particular about what they eat, and are by no means dainty. When Darius in his flight from Greece drank from a ditch defiled with dead carcases, he declared he had never drunk so pleasantly before.

It was the story of the dog and the shadow—i.e. of one who throws good