Jasper Republican, Volume 2, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1875 — Pariah Dogs. [ARTICLE]

Pariah Dogs.

Mrs. Bkrton says, in “The of Syria”: “ A few words about the street dogs, as I have become very ftunlHar wM their habits and customs In all EaSteth towns they have sprung up from the time of the creation, they multiply extensively, they belong to, nobody, they are pot sacred, but, as they are town scavengers, nobody kills them. With the Mdslem it is a sin to, take life, but it is allowable; or rather it is the practice, to torture, mafan and ill-use shorn of death. These poor brutes live on the offal of the town, they sleep in the streets. They are ill-used by the whole population, and, like Ishmael, their hand is against every one and werf one’s hand is against them. The beat them, kick them, stone them, so that out of 18,000 you will not see a dozen old ones with a whole body or four sound legs. They are so unused to kindness ISiat if you touched one it would bite your hand off like a wild beast, supposing thatyou were going to injure it. Were you to remain alone in a bazaar at night shut up with them it is probable that they would at-' 1

tack you in a pack and-kill you. There is a story of a sea Captain who drank ja little much and lay down in a public place. In the morning only a gnawed bone or two, his sailor’s cap and tattered clothes told the horrible story. It is quite possible that'this should happen, the animals are so starved. Their habits are regulated by laws of their own. I have grown, in the solitude of Salahiyeh, to learn them. At night, when profound stillness reigns in the village, you suddenly hear a dog coming down fromthe Khurdish burial-ground on the roots of the mountains. He communicates some news to the dogs nearest the borders of the village. There is achorus of barking; it ceases, and a single dog is commisioned to bear the news to the dogs of our quarter. They set up a howl, which ceases after a few minutes, and one of our lot is detached, and files dovm the gardens td the dogs near the Babies Salahiyeh. Whatever the canine; news i»,;to about twenty mjnutes itis passed round toalj the dogs of Damascus. I cultivated the affections of those of our quarter, and found that in attachment and fidelity they differ in nothing from the noblest mastiff or most petted terrier; every time my husband or I went out a dog was sent on guard by their community to accompany us to the border of his boundary, when he appeared topass us on to a friend in the next boundary, to wag his tail for a bow, and to take his leave, as a savage chieftain would frank you from tribe to tribe. If a stranger comes they set up a chorus of barking and follow him in crowds. If a dog goes into another territory, all the others fly at and fasten on him, as if they said: ‘Who’s that, Bill?’ ‘Astranger.’ ‘-Then ’eave ’art a brick at him!’ If an English dog cornea M»eng them they bark around and try his mettle, and he has to settle the question for himself the first day, like a new boy at a public school.” - -