.
In Nubia is a smaller dog of the same kind, which never burrows. It lives on small animals and birds, and rarely enters any of the towns. A similar dog, according to Colonel Hamilton Smith, inhabits the neighbourhood of the Cape, and particularly the Karroo or Wilderness. It is smaller than either of the others, and lives among bushes or under prominent rocks. Others, although not identified with the jackal, yet associating with him, inhabit the Uplands of Gambia and Senegal.
On the Gold Coast, the dog is used and prized as an article of food. He is fattened and driven to market as the European drives his sheep and hogs. The dog is even more valued than the sheep for human subsistence, and is deemed the greatest luxury that can be placed even on the royal table.
In Loango, or Lower Guinea, is a town from which the
s derive their name — the
dingo
. They hunt in large packs. They fearlessly attack even the elephant, and generally destroy him. In the neighbourhood of the Cape, the country is nearly cleared of wild beasts; but in Cape Town there are a great number of lean and miserable dogs, who howl about the streets at night, quitting their dens and lurking-places, in quest of offal. No great while ago, the wolves and hyænas used to descend and dispute the spoil with the dogs, while the town resounded with their hideous howlings all the night long.
will be a proper place to refer to the numerous accounts that are given both in ancient and modern times of the immolation of dogs, and of their being used for food. They were sacrificed at certain periods by the Greeks and Romans to almost all their deities, and particularly to Mars, Pluto, and Pan, to Minerva, Proserpine, and Lucina, and also to the moon, because the dog by his barking disturbed all charms and spells, and frightened away all spectres and apparitions.