The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-02-13

very fast rate where it is not too rough.
 In some countries they are made to pull with the hips They are so harnessed , that the drawing strap passes from the ) sledge between the legs of the dog and
 to ring fastened around the body and to the tail, drawing, therefore, with the hips.
 WONDERFUL ENDURANCE The endurance of the Alaskan dog is far superior to his brothers of the warmer
 chmes. They are often in harness as long
 as 21 consecutive hours. The Eskimo dog
 which Le Peyrere described in 1647, saying he was very large and was used like a
 horse, is found, according to Robert Brown, as far north as man goes, but is Il not used by the Eskimo farther south than Holsteinborg, because the ocean l does not freeze sufficiently hard to use
 sledges. Nine Eskimo dogs are supposed
 to pull 1900 to 2000 pounds 15 to 20 English
 miles day for weeks and even months They are valued in their native country at $. 50 each. If this dog should become II extinct the Greenlander must also perish. This event is more certain than the eX
 tinction of the prairie Indians after the death of the buffalo. The Eskimo dog 1 Is fed altogether on fish. Many tribes show pride in the fact that their dog
 teams are matched in color.
 Among the Indians of North America the dog has been used a beast of
 
 ed during life, he after death receives l many honors-a truly human character istic. They were used a great deal by the Indian in transporting hides to trad I ing posts.
 However useful to man the dog may have proven himself as a hunting animal 1 and beast of burden, yet many races of people left it to him to keep himself fat and in good condition as he did before | their mutual approach [And forging ahead in this article, I may add that many of our enlightened and modern dog trainers and handlers are living, when it I comes to feeding their charges, in the l dark ages, and believe the animal should 1 feed itself-judging from it's condition l upon return to it's owner at the end of the training period.
 1 From classical antiquity we obtain 1 many accounts of human bodies being | thrown to the dogs to be devoured. In | Asia we find, especially among the Mon- l golian peoples, complete indifference to 1 the corpses of the poor Before the year | 10O0 history states such bodies were given l as prey to dogs. In Urga, writes Prsche- l walsky, beggars have their nest-lille beds 1 in the market place. If one is about to | die the dogs stand around him and wait 1 for his last breath he is then devoured. 1 The dead of the better class are taken to the church yard. where the dogs conduct l the interrnent by means of their stomach. 1 In the parable of Lazarus, who ate the crumbs that fell from the rich mans 1 table. the dogs came and licked his sores. i Would anything very different have be- l fallen his body after his soul had h6w1l | to heaven?
 I In caves in Poland examined by scen- l lists, traces of human industry have been | found, but no human bones; this was 1 held as negative indication of the for 1 mer occupation by Mongos, who gave the dead to dogs.
 We learn from Stanley that in Uganda dogs are used in battle. The Turks also 1 placed the dogs on their outposts. The | challky excrement, for which there was a special market in Berlin, was used by the peoples of western Asia for tanning. Its use spread from there to the dog Il abounding city of Constantinople, for the l preparation of morocco leather, and great cargoes were sent to the United States for similar purposes.
 Trade in dog hides was carried on from northern Asia in two directions-west to Europe or east to North America, black Siberian dog pelt being worth from 50 to 100 rubles (about s27.5O to s55). In Paris the pelt was quickly tanned and prepared as fashion demanded. The principal port town for colored skins is a port in Manchura. The severe cold develops
 beautiful belts.
 l SOME ANCIENT BELIEF I According to Synisius (ffth century), the dog held the position as sentinel at the mouth of hell The Aztecs held the belief that he acted as guide through the dark regions after death. Luther asserts, \ in his Table Talk that dogs go to heaven, and firmly believed he would
 again see his own little dog in the other world [How many of us today hope
 for the same pleasure?1 Tn German myth
 ology the dog is the messenger of death,
 and in Formosa, when the dog howls peo-
 pie have the priest come, for some mem-
 Der of the family is about to die. This
 belief is still held among civilized na
 tions.
 IF Germany, several centuries ago, the
 killing of dogs was allowed ito flayers
 and knackers, also to doctors and stu , dents of medicine that they might better
 learn the human body
 Hunters and shepherds among the most different peoples know that their dogs
 understand their speech and gestures, and
 so do those that busy themselves much
 with dogs, and conversely the masters un-
 derstand the various notes of the voices
 of their dogs that have become modified by contact with civilization and under the
 training of man.
 Let us see what deductions can be
 drawn from the names given to dogs by savages, according to the best authori-
 ties:
 Among the African names for the dog
 there is one that is also used for ani- nals in general; among others there are
 several that are used in one and the same tribe for swine. This favors the view
 that the earliest dogs among them were
 not used either for the chase or as guard ians, but, like swine. for food, perhaps as that epoch when the northern part of Africa had a different conformation, to- gether with a different flora and fauna. In North America a comparison of the , words for wolf and dog show us that, as was also known from geological reasons
 the dog distributed from north to south was partly derived from the hunting strains by the somewhat active inter-
 course between the Indian tribes of the
 northwest and the peoples of northeastern , Asia, and also that at an early period the dog of the Kamchatkans came over, for the same name for dog is also found in America,
 5 In South America. as in Africa, we sometimes find the same name used for : dog and pig; occasionally the same for : dog and beast of prey. It is striking that the root word for dog and bear never agree, while those for dog and the small ? CT canaverous animals sometimes do The statement of Leland. All ignorant : and unscientific people give to unnamed , animals the name of some creature with which they are familiar" also holds good in Australia.
 A FEW SUPPOSITIONS 2 As a final word on the ancient history of our friend, the dog, I might add the