on the ground, its hair still moist with perspiration, and when he
lifted up the body by one of its ears, he found his lost silver safely
concealed underneath it! His gratitude was great, and he bought a
coffin, in which he placed the dog and then buried it. The place is
known as “the Grave of the Faithful Dog.”
It is not true that every one in China eats dogs, but some do, and the
trade in such animals is a recognised business. There are several cat
and dog restaurants at Canton. This unenviable habit gives rise to the
story of a merchant who had made a good stroke of business at Wu-hu and
was going home in a canal boat, when he noticed on the bank a butcher
who was tying up a dog previous to killing it. It is not stated if the
merchant had always a tender heart or if his good fortune in the town
made him wish to do a good turn to some living thing; anyhow, he
proposed to buy the dog. The butcher was no fool; he guessed that the
trader would never leave the dog to its fate after thinking about
rescuing it—what dreadful sleepless nights such a proceeding would cost
any of us! So he boldly asked a great deal more than the dog was worth,
which was paid down, and the animal was untied and put on the boat with
his new master. Now it so happened that the boatman had been a brigand,
and, though partially reformed, the feeling that he had on board a
traveller with a large sum of money was too strong a temptation for him.
So he stopped the boat by running it among the rushes and drew out a
long knife, with which he prepared to murder his passenger. The merchant
begged the brigand not to mutilate him or cut off his head, because such
treatment causes the victim to appear in the next world as no one would
like to. Brigands are generally religious, and this one was no
exception; he was willing to oblige the merchant and tied him up, quite
whole, in a carpet, which he threw into the river. The dog, which had
been looking on, was in the water in a moment, hugging and tugging at
the bundle till he got it to a shallow place. Then he barked and barked
till people came to see what was the matter, and they undid the carpet
and found the trader still alive. The first thought of the rescued man
was to track the thief, for which purpose he started at once to go back
to Wu-hu. At the time of starting, much to his distress, he missed the
dog. On arriving at Wu-hu he hunted among the endless boats and shipping
for the boat by which he had travelled, but unfortunately he could see
nothing of it, and at last he gave up the search and was going home with
a friend when what should he see but his lost dog, which barked in a
curious way as if to invite him to follow it. The merchant did so, and
the dog led him to a boat that was lying close to the quay. Into this
boat the dog jumped and seized hold of one of the boatmen by the leg. In
spite of blows the animal would not let go, and then the merchant, on
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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