The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome
History
The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to prose. Volume II (of X) - Rome
Literature -- Collections
In daily life, we have discovered many other valuable qualities in
this animal; but its intelligence and sagacity are more especially
shown in the chase. It discovers and traces out the tracks of the
animal, leading by the leash the sportsman who accompanies it straight
up to the prey; and as soon as ever it has perceived it, how silent it
is, and how secret but significant is the indication which it gives,
first by the tail and afterward by the nose!
When Alexander the Great was on his Indian expedition, he was
presented by the King of Albania with a dog of unusual size; being
greatly delighted with its noble appearance, he ordered bears, and
after them wild boars, and then deer, to be let loose before it; but
the dog lay down and regarded them with a kind of immovable contempt.
The noble spirit of the general became irritated by the sluggishness
thus manifested by an animal of such vast bulk, and he ordered it to
be killed. The report of this reached the king, who accordingly sent
another dog, and at the same time sent word that its powers were to be
tried, not upon small animals, but upon the lion or the elephant;
adding, that he had originally but two, and that if this one were put
to death, the race would be extinct. Alexander, without delay,
procured a lion, which in his presence was instantly torn to pieces.
He then ordered an elephant to be brought, and never was he more
delighted with any spectacle; for the dog, bristling up its hair all
over the body, began by thundering forth a loud barking, and then
attacked the animal, leaping at it first on the one side and then on
the other, attacking it in the most skilful manner, and then again
retreating at the opportune moment, until at last the elephant, being
rendered quite giddy by turning round and round, fell to the earth,
and made it quite reecho with its fall.
II
THREE GREAT ARTISTS OF GREECE[93]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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