Note 5 — Chapter V

Note 5. Occurrences of this kind are said to have often happened in Arab towns, where dogs, though esteemed unclean by the Muslims, are, like cats, generally very numerous. Few of them have masters; but they compose distinct tribes; those of each tribe confining themselves to a particular quarter or district of the town, and suffering no strange dog to intrude among them and share with them in the offal thrown out from the butchers' shops and from private houses; or prowling about the mounds of rubbish in the environs, and, like the vultures, feeding upon the carcasses of camels, asses, and other beasts, thrown out by the inhabitants. I was once told that the master of an English merchant-vessel, having fallen asleep in a state of intoxication on the shore of the harbour of Alexandria, at night, was devoured by dogs.