Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/396

368 usurers, who are worried by the fiery flakes that fall upon them, and are trying to remove them (Inf. xvii. 49):—

We are next introduced to him gnawing a bone (Inf. xsxiii. 78), and then we see the faithful House-Dog flying at a tramp (Inf. xxi. 68), and, lastly, the impotent cur (botolo) snarling at the passer-by (Purg. xiv. 46). I can find no allusion to the Sheep-Dog, which is surprising, especially when Giotto has left us the picture of such a fascinating little puppy in his carving of pastoral life on the tower of the Cathedral at Florence. But, though he is not mentioned, the Sheep ("pecore pecorelle agnelli") are alluded to on several occasions. I always imagine them to be Giotto's Sheep, not the great big specimens with which one meets in England. He describes the sportive lamb (Par. v. 82), that leaves its mother's milk, and frolicsome and simple, combats at its own pleasure with itself. He speaks of them, as did our early poets, as the "silly Sheep" (Par. v. 80), but they supply him with two of his most fascinating similes. The first is a long one, describing a frosty morning in early spring, and the shepherd driving out his flock. There is such an atmosphere about it; it reminds one of Turner's 'Winter's Morning' (Inf. xxiv. 1). It is getting near the equinox; the hoar-frost on the ground looks like snow, but soon evaporates.

Again, he gives us an accurate picture of them (Purg. iii. 79), where they come out of the fold by ones and twos and threes; and others stand timid, turning their eyes and noses down to the earth; and whatever the foremost one does, so the others do, huddling close up to it if it stops, simple and quiet, and do not