Note 55 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

The famous tale of Bethgelert, the faithful hound which saves the child of his master from the wolf and is killed by mistake, appears all through the folk-tales and was probably derived from India. In the Indian version the dog usually belongs to a Banya or to a Banjâra, who mortgages him to a merchant. The merchant is robbed and the dog discovers the stolen goods. In his gratitude the merchant ties round the neck of the dog a scrap of paper, on which he records that the debt has been satisfied. The dog returns to his original master, who upbraids him for deserting his post, and, without looking at the paper, kills him, only to be overcome by remorse when he learns the honesty of the faithful beast. This famous tale is told at Haidarâbâd, Lucknow, Sîtapur, Mirzapur, and Kashmîr. In its more usual form, as in the Panchatantra and the collection of Somadeva, the mungoose takes the place of the dog and kills the cobra on the baby’s cradle.55