Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-11-01

ity or famine and hard times for
everyone. If few temples, dog
statues and burnt offerings, tC
say nothing of being kind to his
four. footed representative on the
earth, would make the god Sirius
well-disposed, 1t was cheap crop
insurance.
AS a matter of fact. every year
the entire population of the low
country surrounding the Nile
gathered to watch the evening
skies and chant prayers, led by
their priests. At last they would
behold the dog star. rising with a
scarlet glow and changing into
many colors on the horizon.
This was the sign they awaited.
Sirius was now the brightest star
in the sky and promised that the
Nile would soon overflow TO both
irrigate and enrich the land
In the great Osirian legend,
the goddess Isis would never
have succeeded in her heroic
search for the body OF the muir
dered Osiris but for the assist
ance OF a dog headed god. With
his keen canine nose he was able
TO locate the body in the trunk
Of a tamarisk tree.
But alas. the dog fell from his
position Of high esteem in Egypt
about the year 500 B. {. when
Cambyses. King of Persia, con-
quered the country and killed the
sacred bull, Apis. Dogs were
seen TO devour the holy flesh of
the animal and from then on
became devils.
The most exalted canine per
Torrance is found in a Hindu
legend regarding the creation
According TO this version, God
first created the world, the
forests and creeping things
Then he took clay and fashioned
a man and a woman but each
night. before he could put the
spark Of life into them, a great
snake came and devoured the
images, still without life.
God was at his wits ends, the
legend states, because il took
him twelve hours of unbroken
toll TO fashion the. bodies, after
which he needed ten hours ~est
to gain enough strength to give
them life. This went on for
days and days until finally God
created the dog who kept watch
and drove the serpent-devil away
with his howls.
To this day a dog howls when
a man dies, thunder rolls or
screeching sound occurs. This,
they say. is TO brighten the devil
away.
Certain Russian tribes have a
less pleasant version Of the af-
fair. According TO them. God
had fashioned the new clay man
and woman and gone back TO
heaven to look over his stock of
souls FOR a pair appropriate for
the bodies. In his absence he set
the dog. first of created things.
to keep watch over the helpless
forms.
The devil, arriving TO sabotage
the job, managed to get the dog
out Of the way for a moment by
means Of a bride. This was not.
as one might suppose, a nice
hunk of raw meat. II seems that
the dog. as at first created, was
naked as a Chihuahua dog and
the devil. noting that he was
shivering in the chill Of night,
gave him a warm fur coat.
While the dog was putting it
on. the devil improved the occa-
sion by splitting and vomiting on
the helpless figures. When God
returned, with a soul under each
arm, he found his handiwork
such a mess that there was
nothing to do about it but turn
the man and woman inside out.
This explains why a human being
can be so fair and clean outside
yet foul within.
Pythagoras, famous Greek
philosopher. taught that when
a soul left human body, it inn
mediately entered into some ami
NAL. Therefore he enlivened
deathbed scenes of those who be-
licved him by having someone
hold a dogs jaws open in front
Of the dying persons face, as he
breathed his last.
Whatever one may think Of