The old herald, Legh, says of the ass—“As he is not the wisest so is he the least sumptuous, especially in his diet, for his feeding is on Thistles, Nettles, and Briers, and therefore small birdes hate him, especially the Sparrowe is most enemie unto him,” as they see him stolidly devouring the plants that they visit for their own sustenance. The ancient author with ponderous humour finishes his account of the ass by saying, “I could write much of this beast, but that it wolde be thought it were to mine owne glorie.” The dog, the friend and companion of man, was said to see ghosts, and their howling at untoward times portended death or conflagration or some such grave event, and has, therefore, for many centuries been held of evil omen, and no doubt in remote country districts the feeling still remains. The cries were said to be often in terror of sights invisible to man. Rabbi Menachem declares in his exposition of the Pentateuch that “when the Angel of Death enters into a city the dogs do howl,”[63] and he records an instance of a dog that fled in terror from before the angel, and that someone kicked it back and it died, but whether from the effects of a too vigorous kick, or from being thrust into the path of the destroying angel, he does not venture to pronounce. If a child has whooping cough some of its hair must be placed between slices of bread and given to a dog. Should the dog cough, as he most probably will, it is an indication that the disease has passed from the child to the dog. The same idea may be seen in the old custom of giving some of the hair of anyone attacked with scarlet fever to a donkey. Should the animal swallow it the disease was supposed then and there to pass from the one ass to the other. Coles, in his “Art of Simpling,” says that “the herb called Hound’s tongue will tye the Tongues of Houndes, so that they shall not bark at you, if it be laid under the bottom of your foot.” A little hare’s fur somewhere about the person was held to be equally valuable, and no doubt it was. One authority hath it that a dog will not bark if another dog’s tongue be carried under the great toe, and the carrying of a dog’s heart in one’s pocket is another capital idea to the same end. “The tail of a young Wheezel put under your foot is also recommended,” and if none of these methods are available, the dog may be equally well silenced by giving him a frog to eat, artfully secreted in a piece of meat.