The Portland daily press., 1879-05-24


and doubtless there are many who will point
it out to you if you do not disdain to bribe
AT the approach of visitors this lazy dog
gave the mere ghost of a bark-a cultivated
bark, perhaps it would be called now The
ninth is Cavall, the favorite hound of King
Arthur, ''the hound of deepest mouth Ten
nyson calls him in ENID"
Other dogs might be mentioned-for ex-
ample, the canes uenatici that can be seen
to this day chasing the great bear round the
heavens and are only restrained from tear
ing him to pieces by the kind and discreet
Bo0tes who holds them in leash. The dog
of Aubrey of Montdidier too, who brought
the murderer of his master to justice, de-
serves mention. He perhaps belongs to his
tory, for the story of him is stranger than
fiction. If we go to history we can find many
more dogs-as Phoebe the lap-dog of Gather
inc de Medci, and Scotts Mazda. Rip Van
Wrinkles dog and Tatters, have a present
fame, and Tray, Blanche and Sweetheart
might be included in the famous pack.
With the dogs of fiction, too, many are in
clined to class those of whom so unbelieva-
BILE tales are constantly told in the newspa-
perS-and in conversation. 1t is not well,
however, to disbelieve any story told of dogs.
They are often more intelligent than men,
and if they had the same educational advan-
tages, would very likely surpass their mas
| ters. They will do wonderful things. A
| day or two since Yorick was told on unim-
| peachable authority of dog who would take
cent and go to store and buy crackers
with it. He would drop the coin on the
counter and take his crackers, but he would
let no one touch the cent until the crackers
were given to him, and he always insisted on
just measure. This dog lived in Cornish, a
Maine village in which the people are good
at a trade-and many of them good in all
other senses of the word. 1t was in Cornish
too, that another dog, big yellow fellow by
the name of ''Bose," had his residence One
day his master, who was a lawyer of note,
came into the room where Bose was pre-
tending to sleep, and complained to others
there that he had lost his pocketbook some
where in mountain pasture three miles
away. Bose said nothing, and gave no sign
that he was interested in the conversation;
but he sauntered out and was gone many
hours. When he returned he had the pock-
etbook in his mouth and dropped it at the
feet of his master. There are many other
stories about dogs that Yorick knows to be
true and would tell "did not the crowded
state of our columns forbid.'' He has in
mind a dog, Zachary Taylor by name, who
was prodigy OF him something may be
said at more convenient time. That dog
carried more brains under his hat than most
OF the townspeople thereabouts did under
theirs. His early opportunities for educa-
ton were scanty, but in spite of that he rose
to eminence in his profession. He was a
self-made dog, and the workmanship was
good. Yorick made his acquaintance at an
early age-they were puppies together. The
first time they met was as the dog re-
turned from hunting excursion. He had
been chasing skunks, and had caught them
it was a very severe case. Proud of his VIC
tory he rushed, barking, into a room, on
ly to be received with broomstick and the
exclamation, "Good Lord, Zack, do get out
of the kitchenw He got out, and Yorick,
whose own exploits had sometimes been re-
ceived with as little appreciation, followed
him and made friends with him.
But this is not answering ga Constant
Readers" questions. What of the twenty
eight swords? There are: the Excalibur of
King Arthur; the Joyeuse of Charlemagne;
the Tizona, taken by him from King Buckar;
Maligigis Flamberge, or Fusberta, as the
Italian poets call it, given to Rinaldo; the
Haute-Claire of Olivier; the Durandel of
Roland; the Courtain of Ogier, the Dane;
the Angurvadel of Frithiof; the Welsung of
Sintram; the Chrysaor of Sponsors Artegal;
the Quern-Biter of Thoralf the Strong; the
Askelon of st. George
But George he shIy'd the dragons beard
And Askelon was his razor
says the ballad of est. George for England
the bu rden of the ballad is familiar
st. George he was for England; st. Denis was for
France;
Sing, Honi soft qai NAL pense.
The twelfth is the dagger with which Mon
tesenOs took out the heart of Durandarte,
described in Don Quixote. The thirteenth
is Curtana, the blunt sword emblematical of
mercy, that old chroniclers say Edward the
Confessor bore. The fourteenth is Tranch-
era, the sword of Agricane who
With all his northern powers
Besieged Albracca, as romances tell
The fifteenth is Morglay, welded by Sir
Bevis of Hamptown. The sixteenth is
Braggadochio's Sanglamore, described in
The Faery Queen-his weapons are in
fashion still. The seventeenth is Colada,
with which that ''poor baron of CASTLE" the
Cid, slew so many Moors. The eighteenth is
Launcelots Aroundight. The nineteenth
is the Balisarda of Rogero, one of Charlem-
agnes converts and knights, who may
now take his place in history on the strength
of the fiction that says he was the first
Christian King of Bulgaria. The twentieth
Nibelungen-Lied The twenty-irst is his
too, Mimung, lent him by Witch. The
twenty-second is Nagelring which Die
trich used with such effect in the terrible
broil stirred up by Kriemhild the beautiful
queen in the great Northern epic. The
twenty-third is Merveilleuse, owned by
Doolin of Mayence, the father of Ogier.
The twenty-fourth is Jacks Jack of the
nursery tale) sword of sharpness. The
twenty-fifth is Albattar, the sword Mahomet
was fabled to have. The twenty-sixth is
the scimetar with which Saladin in
''The Talisman' cuts the pillow. The
twenty-seventh is the enchanted sword in
Amadis of Gaul, that gave access to the
buried treasure to whomever drew it from
the rock in which the enchanter planted it.
The twenty-eighth is the wooden or lathe
sword of Harlequin.
Now to the horses! There are Pegasus;
and Cyllaros the steed the Great Twin
Brethren rode; and Dinos the horse of
Diomed; and Nonios which Pluto stabbed
in hell; and Sleipnir the sixfooted, bestrode
by Odin; and Xanthos, which announced to
Achilles the approach of swiftcoming death;
and Galathe and Podarge, Hector's span;
and Abraxos, the steed of Aurora. These are
nine-in so large and famous stud one
must keep count and guard against runa-