The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1882-11-30
Regard of the Ancients for Animals.

In ancient Egypt, when cat died in the
house, the inhabitants shaved their eyebrows !:
if a dog died, they shaved tie whole body. In
Athens, one of the laws of Triptolemus dcclar-
ed that no one had right to ntlict il wrong
upon living creature. The Greeks Were aware
of the tender and attectionat care which the
young of the stork exhibited for their old pa
rents, and recorded tha-, Wheu the latter lost
their feathers from aga, the young stripped
themselves of their dow for them and fed them
with the food they cole tied. ThiS was the ori-
gin Of the Greek law called 1.-THE law of the
stork." by virtue of which children We're obi
gated to take care of heir aged parents and
those who refused to do We're declared in
famous. How different is it in our modern So
cieticS. Pierquin remarks with reason that as
man rises, he treats animals as if they Were cor
respondngly degraded. For long time they
had the same rights. During the middle ages
they We're allowed a part in religious ceremo-
nieS. AT Milan they figured in the festivals Of
the kings; and professions of animals appear
in the bas rcliefs of the cathedralS of Strasburg
Mans and Nienne Gsere) On Holy WeClncs-
day all the clergy of the church Of Rheims went
to Saint Reml to make a station there; the can
onS. preceded by the cross, We're arranged in
two lines. each drawing herring after him
with 4 cord; and each one was intent upon
saving his own fish and stepping upon that of
the canon in front of him (AnQuctil, "IIstoire
de Relms"D. At Paris. the procession Of the
ass. The animal, dressed in kind of surplice,
wearing the mitre, had his place in the midst of
the clergy; a fowl was put within his reach: he
often forgot his pious functions to spring upon
the bird and deYour it in the presence of the
faithful. Philip the Fair was very fond of this
procession (Sanval, " Antiquities de Pars'')
Only few years ago, the procession of the fat
OK renamed, a survival from the pagan feasts,
a real piece of wreckagc from vanished civiliZa-
ton.
While the rights of animals We're thus recog-
nlZed their duties toward man did not escape
the earlier legislators who severely punished
their crimes and attempts upon human life.
The law of Moses Exodus xxi. %. 29) recies ::
III an on gore Il man or Il woman. that they
die: then the OK shall be surely stoned. and his
flesh shall not be eaten: but the owner of the
OK shall be quit But if the OK We're wont TO
push with his horn i'll time past and it hath
been testified to his owner. and he hath not
kept him in, but that he hath killed a man or a
woman: the OK shall be stoned. and his owner
also shall be put to DEATH
Judgments based upon this principle are re-
corded at Athens and Rome According to Pier
qum, DemOcrtus wished an animal, which had
occasloned some maj ior damage, to be punished
with death. Under Domtian. according to the
report of Martial, the ingratitude of lion to-
ward It's master was severely punished. Co.
lumella and Narro say that the ancient Romans
regarded the OK as the companion of the labors
of man, and that the act of killing one was re-
garded as a homicide and punished in the same
way; and the OK enjoyed the same privilege in
Attica and the Peloponnesus. 1t is also said
that the Arabs in the mountains of Africa for
merry crucltied lions, guilty of murders, upon
trees as warnings to others. A. Lacassagne
in Popular Science Monthly for December.