The Irish may have obtained the superstition through Egypt, Phoenicia,
or Greece, for it is the opinion of some erudite writers that the Irish wolf-
dog (Canis gracius Hibernicus) was descended from the dogs of Greece.
It is strange and noteworthy that although the dog is so faithful to man,
yet it is never mentioned in the Bible without an expression of contempt;
and Moses in his code of laws makes the dog an unclean animal, probably
to deter the Israelites from the Egyptian worship of this animal. It was the
lowest term of offence--" Is thy servant a dog?" False teachers, persecutors,
Gentiles, unholy men, and others sunk in sin and vileness were called dogs;
while at the same the strange prophetic power of these animals was
universally acknowledged and recognized.
The Romans sacrificed a dog at the Lupercalia in February. And to meet
a dog with her whelps was considered in the highest degree unlucky. Of all
living creatures the name of "dog" applied to any one expressed the lowest
form of insult, contempt, and reproach. Yet, of all animals, the dog has the
noblest qualities, the highest intelligence, and the most enduring affection
for man.
The word hound entered into many combinations as a name for various
animals. Thus the rabbit was called, "the hound of the brake;" the hare was
the "brown hound;" the moth was called "the hound of fur," owing to the
voracity with which it- devoured raiment. And the otter is still called by the
Irish Madradh-Uisgue (the dog of the water).
The names of most creatures of the animal kingdom were primitive, the
result evidently of observation. Thus the hedgehog was named "the ugly
little fellow." The ant was the "slender one." The trout, Breac, or "the
spotted," from the skin. And the wren was called "the Druid bird," because
if any one understood the chirrup, they would have a knowledge of coming
events as foretold by the bird.
CONCERNING CATS
CATS have been familiar to the human household from all antiquity, but
they were probably first domesticated in Egypt, where, so far back as two
thousand years ago, a temple was dedicated to the goddess of cats--Bubastis
Pasht--represented with a cat's head. The Greeks had this feline pet of the
house from Egypt, and from Greece the cat race, such as we have it now,
was disseminated over Europe. It was a familiar element in Greek
household life, and if anything was broken, according to Aristophanes, the
phrase went then as now, "The cat did it." But cats were never venerated in
Greece with religious adoration as in Egypt, the only country that gave
them Divine honour, and where, if a cat died, the whole family shaved off
their eyebrows in token of mourning.