DOGGIE SUPERSTITIONS

The more I see of humans, The more I love Dogs


SUPERSTITIONS


HOWLING :

It is a widespread superstition that a dog howls when there is a death. To quote Longfellow:

In the rabbinical book it saith:
 The dog howls when with icy breath,
Great Sammael, the angel of death,
Takes thro' the town his flight.

MANDRAKES:

In medieval bestiary, the only way to capture a mandrake root ( to which all sorts of magical powers were attributed) was by using a wolfhound to tear it from the earth.

OMENS :

An ancient Kaffir superstition was that bad luck should be expected if a dog leaped on to the roof of a hut. The Damara of south west Africa dreaded meeting a dog with one foot like that of an ostrich- a sign of impending death.

DOCKING :

Two thousand years ago docking a dog's tail was thought to prevent madness. The practice was encouraged in more recent times by taxation ( A bob tailed dog was a working dog)

DISCORD :

The Greeks thought that if a stone which had been bitten by a dog was dropped into wine, those who drank it would fall out amongst themselves.

Raj Prateek Verma