Page:Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.djvu/375

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Doff is do-off, as "Doff your hat." So Don is do-on, as "Don your clothes." Dup is do-up, as "Dup the door" (q.v.).

"Doff thy harness, youth,
And tempt not yet the brushes of the war."
Shakespeare: Troilus and Cressida, v. 3.


Dog. This long article is subdivided into eleven parts:

(1) Dogs of Note:

Barry. The famous mastiff of Great St. Bernard's, in the early part of the present century instrumental in saving forty human beings. His most memorable achievement was rescuing a little boy whose mother had been destroyed by an avalanche. The dog carried the boy on his back to the hospice. The stuffed skin of this noble animal is kept in the museum of Berne.

Gelert (q.v.).

Tonton. The dog which was enclosed in an acorn.

Tray—i.e. Trag = runner, or else from the Spanish traér, to fetch.

(2) Dogs of noted persons:

Actæon's fifty dogs. Alcē (strength), Amaryn′thos (from Amary′thia, in Eubæa), As′bolos (soot-colour), Ban′os, Bor′eas, Can′achē (ringwood), Chediæ′tros, Cisse′ta, Co′ran (cropped, crop-eared), Cyllo (halt), Cyllop′otēs (zig-zag runner), Cyp′rios (the Cyprian), Draco (the dragon), Drom′as (the courser), Dro′mice (seize-'em), Ech′nobas, Eu′dromos (good-runner), Har′palē (voracious), Harpie′a (tear-'em), Ichnob′atē (track-follower), La′bros (furious), ′Lacæna′ (lioness), Lach′nē (glossy-coated), Lacon (Spartan), La′don (from Ladon, in Arca′dia), Lælaps (hurricane), Lampos (shining-one), Leu′cos (grey), Lycis′ca, Lynce′a, Mach′imos (boxer), Melampē (black), Melanche′tē (black-coat), Melan′ea (black), Menele′a, Molossos (from Molossos), Na′pa (begotten by a wolf), Nebroph′onos (fawn-killer), Oc′ydroma (swift-runner), Or′esitrophos (mountain-bred), Ori′basos (mountain-ranger), Pachy′tos (thick-skinned), Pam′phagos (ravenous), Pœ′menis (leader), Pter′elas (winged), Stricta (spot), Therid′amas (beast-tamer or subduer), The′ron (savage-faced), Thoös (swift), U′ranis (heavenly-one).

⁂ Several modern names of dogs are of Spanish origin, as Ponto (pointer), Tray (fetch), etc.

King Arthur's favourite hound. Cavall.

Aubry's dog. Aubry of Montdid′ier was murdered, in 1371, in the forest of Bondy. His dog, Dragon, showed a most unusual hatred to a man named Richard of Macaire, always snarling and ready to fly at his throat whenever he appeared. Suspicion was excited, and Richard of Macaire was condemned to a judicial combat with the dog. He was killed, and in his dying moments confessed the crime.

Belgrade, the camp-sutler's dog: Clumsy.

Browning's (Mrs.) little dog Flush, on which she wrote a poem.

Lord Byron's favourite dog. Boatswain, buried in the garden of Newstead Abbey.

Catherine de Medici's favourite lap-dog was named Phœbé.

Cathullin's hound was named Luath ((q.v.)).

Douglas's hound was named Luffra or Lufra ((q.v.)).

Elizabeth of Bohemia's dog was named Apollon.

Fingal's dog was named Bran.

"'Mar e Bran, is e a brathair' (If it be not Bran, it is Bran's brother) was the proverbial reply of Maccombich."—Waverley, chap. xiv.

Frederick of Wales had a dog given him by Alexander Pope, and on the collar were these words—

"I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?"

Ge′ryon's dogs. Gargittios and Orthos. The latter was the brother of Cer′beros, but had one head less. Herculēs killed both these monsters.

Icar′ios's dog. Mæra (the glistener). Icarios was slain by some drunken peasants, who buried the body under a tree. His daughter Erig′onē, searching for her father, was directed to the spot by the howling of Mæra, and when she discovered the body she hung herself for grief. Icarios became the constellation Boötēs, Erig′one the constellation Virgo, and Mæra the star Pro′cyon, which rises in July, a little before the Dog-star. (Greek, pro-kuon.)

Kenneth's (Sir) famous hound was called Roswal. (Sir W. Scott: The Talisman.)

Lamb's (Charles) dog was named Dash.

Landor's (Savage) dog was named Giallo.

Landseer's greyhound was named Brutus. "The Invader of the Larder."