The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1892-04-16
DOGS in ANCIENT EGYPT.
They Were washed, shaved, Rouged and
Petted in various Ways

Petted in Various Wavs.
In Egypt the dog was friend and
faithful servant He lived in the house
with his master, followed him in his
walks, attended the public ceremonies,
sometimes free, at other times held in
leash by a slave or child, or in princely
families by a favorite dwarf At his
meals he had his place marked under
the benches of the guests As in Greece
and Rome, he was there to dispose OF
bcnes the fragments Of meat and the
pieces of bread that were thrown down,
and in general way to keep the din
ing room clean. These were certainly
not very refined fashions, and it our
house dogs had to satisfy themselves in
this way they would be likely TO die of
hunger
The ancients did not feel the delicate
taste and disgusts in such matters that
we experience; their life presented eX-
cessive refinements and rude features
of which we have no idea, side by side
The house dog in Egypt was a domes-
tic, working at his trade, only his trade
was one in which we have ceased to
employ him; it may not have been
great thing that he was lost, but it is
in the kitchen or his kennel that he |
finishes up his masters dessert,
The house-dog was shaved, combed |
and washed He was sometimes tinted |
with benna, as if he were woman.
He wore fine collars on his neck, fur
nished sometimes with an earthenware
clasp in the shape of a bell or flower
Children played with him, became at
tached to him, and the hero of one sto-
70, yhpr 1,io OF ho1 tNraIiata1 nj
his birth that he would die of the bite
of a dog, willingly confronted the
threatened danger rather than be sepa-
rated from the dog he had raised. He,
OF course, had a name, to which he an
swered Si-togai, the ferreter; Khaoub-
sen, the lamp or star; Soubou, the
strong and Nahsi, the black
He is seen with kings as with COM
mon persons. Rameses IL, during the
earlier years of his reign, was always
escorted by IA female dog, which was
called Anaitiennaktou, or brave as the
goddess Anaitis A petty king of the
eleventh dynasty, about $500 B. c., had
five dogs, which he so loved that he
carved their names and engraved their
portraits on his tomb. They were in
deed blooded animals, whose names
revealed their foreign origin. The
finest of them was called Abalkarou, a
faithful transcription of the word abai-
kour, by which the hunting dog is des-
ignated in many of the Berber districts
The shepherds had dogs of medium
size, with pointed ears, like those which
guard the tlocks of upper Egypt Hunt
ers sought out two or three different
kinds of hounds, some having straight
ears and short tails and some dropping
ears and long tail, like the slouguis
of the modern Berbers They are to
be seen in many of the tombs, spring.
ing in pursuit of gazelles and antelopes,
or running down the hare and the os-
trich. A few pugs, heavy and
grotesque like our, are represent
ed occasionally, rather as house
dogs than hunters These ami
mails were in considerable number,
and made the ancient Egyptian villages
as dangerous at night as modern
villages are. An officer relegated
TO one of the delta bergs a few years
after the death of Rameses II. COM
planned bitterly of their boldnes, in a
letter addressed to one of the chiefs.
"When sometimes" he says, ''the
people of the country meet to drink
Cilician beer, and go out to open the
bottles-there are two hundred large
mastilfs and three hundred wolf dogs
waiting all day at the door of my house
every time l go out at nightlall to
take part in the feast l am kept out if
/ have not with me the little wolf dog
of Nahilon, the royal scribe, who
lodges with me. lie saves me from the
T I.
goes with me on the street, and when
he backs l run, swinging my clubs and
whips 1t is, in fact, only pack of
NANCY, high-tailed wolf dogs prowling
around the cattle pens. When they
have made their round the largest
ones in front in compact mass as if in
a bunch, one would say that it was the
enchantment of some god, flame
which had fixed itself out and would
not let GO"
Rowing dogs are less numerous and
less ferocious now, but they become at
times terrible to strangers. 1t has
often happened TO me, when casual Y
passing through a village of Upper
Egypt about midnight to be remin ed
when ! met them of the bulldog in one
of Dickens novels, "a bitter of man and
killer of chickens for sport which
usually lived on the right side of the
street but also hid himself on the left
side, SO as to be ready to jump upon the
passerby."
AS it is to-day, so it was in the time
of Rameses H., and the experience Of
the present day enables us to under
stand exactly what our scribe meant in
the passage l have just quoted. -
Nature.
The Princesse Tea-Gown.
There is always one more thing to be