.
On the other hand, the dog was frequently the executioner; and, from an early period, whether in the course of war or the mock administration of justice, thousands of poor wretches were torn to pieces by animals trained to that horrible purpose.
Many of the Indians of North America, and almost of the present day, are fond of the flesh of the dog.
Captain Carver, in his
Travels in North America
in 1766, 1767, and 1768, describes the admission of an Indian into one of the horrible societies of that country.
"The dishes being brought near to me," says he, "I perceived that they consisted of dog's flesh, and I was informed that at all their grand feasts they never made use of any other food. The new candidate provides fat dogs for the festival, if they can be procured at any price. They ate the flesh; but the head and the tongue were left sticking on a pole with the front towards the east. When any noxious disease appeared among them, a dog was killed, the intestines were wound between two poles, and every man was compelled to pass between them."
The Nandowepia Indians also eat dog's flesh as an article of luxury, and not from any want or scarcity of other animal food; for they have the bear, buffalo, elk, deer, beaver, and racoon.
Professor Keating, in his interesting work on the expedition to Peter's River, states that he and a party of American officers were regaled in a large pavilion on buffalo meat, and
tepsia