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Dogs and All about Them
·
Robert Leighton
7
The
dog
was
not
greatly
appreciated
in
Palestine,
and
in
both
the
Old
and
New
Testaments
it
is
commonly
spoken
of
with
scorn
and
contempt
as
an
"unclean
beast."
Even
the
familiar
reference
to
the
Sheepdog
in
the
Book
of
Job--"But
now
they
that
are
younger
than
I
have
me
in
derision,
whose
fathers
I
would
have
disdained
to
set
with
the
dogs
of
my
flock"--is
not
without
a
suggestion
of
contempt,
and
it
is
significant
that
the
only
biblical
allusion
to
the
dog
as
a
recognised
companion
of
man
occurs
in
the
apocryphal
Book
of
Tobit
(v.
16),
"So
they
went
forth
both,
and
the
young
man's
dog
with
them."
The
pagan
Greeks
and
Romans
had
a
kindlier
feeling
for
dumb
animals
than
had
the
Jews.
Their
hounds,
like
their
horses,
were
selected
with
discrimination,
bred
with
care,
and
held
in
high
esteem,
receiving
pet
names;
and
the
literatures
of
Greece
and
Rome
contain
many
tributes
to
the
courage,
obedience,
sagacity,
and
affectionate
fidelity
of
the
dog.
The
Phoenicians,
too,
were
unquestionably
lovers
of
the
dog,
quick
to
recognise
the
points
of
special
breeds.
In
their
colony
in
Carthage,
during
the
reign
of
Sardanapalus,
they
had
already
possessed
themselves
of
the
Assyrian
Mastiff,
which
they
probably
exported
to
far-off
Britain,
as
they
are
said
to
have
exported
the
Water
Spaniel
to
Ireland
and
to
Spain.
It
is
a
significant
circumstance
when
we
come
to
consider
the
probable
origin
of
the
dog,
that
there
are
indications
of
his
domestication
at
such
early
periods
by
so
many
peoples
in
different
parts
of
the
world.
As
we
have
seen,
dogs
were
more
or
less
subjugated
and
tamed
by
primitive
man,
by
the
Assyrians,
Egyptians,
Phoenicians,
Greeks,
and
Romans,
as
also
by
the
ancient
barbaric
tribes
of
the
western
hemisphere.
The
important
question
now
arises:
Had
all
these
dogs
a
common
origin
in
a
definite
parent
stock,
or
did
they
spring
from
separate
and
unrelated
parents?
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