Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/58

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. JAN. 21, 1911.

Talmud, a woman on her way to the public bakeries, being barked at by one of these brutes, was seized with premature labour. Hence arose the saying " Whoso harbours a ferocious dog mars the happiness of the home- stead " ; a proverb which Rashi interprets to mean " dogs drive away wandering minstrels and poor scholars, whose presence in the home is a source of joy." And here let me put on record an obvious textual corruption or misreading. The Gemarists derive that aphorism from Job vi. 14, and then proceed to add " the Greeks call a dog lomas," meaning, of course, Av/<vs=wolf. Are wolves tamable ? Can they be used as watchdogs ? The point is worth finding out.

To what extent in later times Jews made dogs companions in the home it is difficult to state positively, iinless this passage in the Mischna implies it: "It is forbidden to take out dogs on the Sabbath for exercise." Still, the animal must have advanced in social favour when we read in Horioth 13 that " a dog knows its owner always ; a cat never." The dog never rose to the dignity reached by the ox or the horse : " Among beasts, the ox ; over birds, chanti- cleer, is king " (Baba Kama 86). Love of animals generally is shown in two citations : " Sit not down to meals until your beast be fed " (Berachoth 39). " Animals should be fed at certain intervals, according to their habits" (Sanhedrin 21).

M. L. R. BBESLAB.

Percy House, South Hackney.

When Sir Walter Scott writes of the dog or the horse, he invariably illustrates his own warm predilection and his unique experience. It may not be amiss to supple- ment MB. CUBBY'S apposite reference by recalling the notable tribute paid to the sagacity of the dog in connexion with the episode of King Richard's banner which is vividly delineated in ' The Talisman.' In chap. xxiv. the king's eulogy, prompted by Roswal's detection of Conra'de, rests on the novelist's creed :

" Recollect that the Almighty, who gave the dog to be companion of our pleasures and our toils, hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit. He forgets neither friend nor foe remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and injury. He hath a share of man's intelligence, but no share of man's falsehood. You may bribe a soldier to slay a man with his sword, or a witness to take life by false accusation ; but you cannot make a hound tear his benefactor he is the friend of man, save when man justly mcurs his enmity."

See also the touching ' Hellvellyn,' giving the story of the youth who perished on the mountain-side, with only his devoted terrier to witness his passing : Nor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, For, faithful in death, his mute favourite attended, The much-loved remains of her master defended,

And. chased the hill-fox and the raven away.

THOMAS BAYNE.

Why does MB. CUBBY say that the authority of Homer, in allowing a dog to live for 20 years, is against that of Aristotle ? Aristotle's opinion is clearly in favour of Homer. After stating the length of life of the Laconian dog, he says :

" Other dogs live, most for about 14 or 15 years* some even 20 ; wherefore some think that Homer was correct when in his poetry he made the dog of Ulysses die in its twentieth year." ' De Animalibus Hist.,' vi. 21. 4.

WEBNEBINA.

DB. JOHNSON IN THE HUNTING FIELD (11 S. ii. 525). The extract from The Periodical comes originally from ' Anec- dotes of Dr. Johnson, by Mrs. Piozzi ' (first published in 1785), to be found in 1836, Anecdote 99, p. 66. The writer interpolates some comments, and alters the original text, i.e., if the original is given in ' Johnsoniana,' where the first part of the anecdote is :
 * Johnsoniana ; or, Supplement to Boswell,'

" He certainly rode on Mr. [not " Mrs."] Thrale's old hunter with a good firmness, and though he would follow the hounds fifty miles an [not " on "] end sometimes, would never own himself either tired or amused."

The last few lines should not be omitted :

" He was however proud to be amongst the sportsmen ; and I think no praise ever went so close to his heart, as when Mr. Hamilton called out one day upon Brighthelmstone Downs, ' Why, Johnson rides as well, for aught I see, as the most illiterate fellow in England.' "

A foot-note says :

" Mr. Boswell says, that Johnson once hunted ; this seems more probable than Mrs. Piozzi's and Hawkins's statements, from which it would be inferred that he hunted habitually."

Anecdote 606, on a page (397) headed " Kearsley. Boothby," is as follows :

" Being asked his opinion of hunting, he said, ' It was the labour of the savages of North Ame- rica, but the amusement of the gentlemen of England.' "

In Anecdote 657 (apparently one of Ooker's), pp. 427-8, Johnson says that pleasure is derived from hunting " because man feels his vacuity less in action than when at rest." ROBEBT PIEBPOINT.