In Ancient Egypt, where the intolerable heat caused draught, the flood of the Nile – the big water- was treated as a miracle. Usually the flood came on the 19th day of the 7th month. It was the time when at the dawn, just before the sunrise, in the orange sky there appeared the star, called Sophis by the Egyptians, Sirius by the Greeks and Hohday-Margan by the Mongols. For the people in Egypt it meant the approach of New Year and the beginning of the flood of the Nile celebration.
The appearance of the Hohday-Margan star and its connection with the flooding that happened exactly in 365 days during many centuries as the constant phenomenon became an impulse to the creation of the Julian calendar – the basis of the modern chronology.
The period when the Dog star - Hohday-Margan – was shining in the sky, took the 7th, the 8th and the beginning of the 9th months. The Romans called this period the “dogs’ days” (Britannica, 2002).The adjacency of the brightest star increases the force of the sunbeams leading it up to the maximum.
In the West Hohday-Margan is called Sirius (in Greek) which means “shining, radiant”. The Russian scientist Scsheglov says it follows from the Arabic “syrai”, that is shining, or “al-shira”, an open door, a rainy season. In Latin, the Dog star - Canis maioris, that is “constellation of the Great dog” and an alphastar which the Mongols called “the constellation of the Heavenly wolf “. Its data is spectrum А1, magnitude 1,5; its diameter is twice more than solar, its radiance is 23 times more bright, though it is located on the distance of 8,8 light years. Therefore the alpha star of constellation of the Heavenly wolf is the brightest star.
The Dog star Hohday-Margan in the culture of the people in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome is connected with a hot season and the flood of the Nile.
On the contrary, the Mongols considered it to be the star of the cold, the chill. The reason is that the native land of the nomads is located in the northerly latitude of the globe. So it is over against the abovementioned countries. The nights of the 12th and the 1st months were the longest and the coldest ones. They also clashed with the period of so-called “dog (or wolf) wedding”. It is no coincidence that the star Hohday-Margan is in constellation of the Heavenly wolf. During this period, despite of an awful winter cold, wolves gather in many tens, and the howling of the male beasts is almost incessant. It clashes with the radiance of such "frosty" stars as "marals", "monkey", Hohday-Margan. These stars appear in autumn and disappear in spring, and they are better to see in winter. The seasons are divided into the warm and cold ones. Galaxies (monkey) appear in the middle of the 9th month, and behind it as if following them, one after another there are “3 marals” - Hohday-Margan , or Sirius, defining the night time. It means that the season of heat has gone, and the Galaxy gives a sign that the season of the Cold begins.(S.Dulam, 1989)
Mongols consider these uncountable stars to be the people who lived on the Earth during the old times and then rose to live up in the Sky. So these mythical heroes were said to have done something brave or dangerous on the Earth and to go on doing it in the Sky. All Mongolian legends say Hohday-Margan to be heavenly shooter, the master of lightning, and finally - the main bogatyr of space scale. It is no coincidence that in a night sky after the occurrence of " 3 marals” and “the head of a roe deer” (Bellytrix), as if pursuing them, almost in 2 hours, there appears Hohday-Margan with dogs Asar and Basar. Since the time of this legend appeared – the Bronze age - this hunting has not ended up, it goes on nowadays.
How have our ancestors - nomads given the legend heroes star shape?
Coming to know the heavenly mythology of the West, it is obvious that the shape of the space heroes are made of a plenty near situated stars, so they occupy the considerable space. On the contrary, our nomadic ancestors at drawing up the shape of the heroes choose mostly one star. The use of personification also makes a special difference. In old time the dog and the wolf were synonyms for the Mongols. As the wolf is considered to be a great creature and the ancestor of the Mongols, it was accepted not to call its name directly (even taboo) - "wolf", it is necessary to speak allegorically:
* Tangarein nohoy - the Heavenly dog;
* Hangain azan - the Master of the Earth (inhabited- hangain);
* Zerlig nohoy, haarin nohoy - a wild dog, etc.
Earlier people of the senior generation followed this interdiction, but now they also have forgotten it.
In general, people who speak Mongolian tend to speak in two or three texts, and it is necessary to be born among them to understand this phenomenon.
Dog - the eleventh sign under the account of the East-Asian calendar: there corresponds male symbol Yang and elements of Metal. The attitude of the ancient Chinese to these animals was ambiguous. On the one hand, the dog was appreciated for its fidelity, and also for protection of the person and his dwelling from the other world and expelling demons. On the other hand, the dog was used as a dustman. It was despised for that.
Each of the dog breeds took the certain place in « the dog hierarchy ». For example, dogs of the Pai breed had a high status, because they participated in hunting, games and entertainments of the aristocrats. Also the dogs that accompanied processions and ran ahead of a group of horsemen with torches in their mouths were also highly appreciated. And dogs of the chow breed were fed with rice to be eaten. From bigger dogs, they removed skins and sewed clothes.
Two Chinese proverbs rather eloquently speak about this double-sided attitude to dogs: “Everyone loves dogs in own way” and “It is better to have a dog, than a daughter”. In the Chinese fine arts and sculpture, often there are images of Buddha’s dogs - frightening lion-like dogs. They were placed near the entrance in Buddhist temples. It was possible to meet images of heavenly dogs” in the bedrooms of married women. According to the Chinese beliefs they protect health and lives of the children. The women born in year of the Dog before becoming pregnant bought the image of this animal – watcher.
Chronicles testify that one of the Chinese emperors held at a court yard the whole rack of the dogs that had grades, ranks and even wedded wives! In the jungles of Southern China there live yao – nationality. They still keep up to a communal way of life. The dog is a totem animal for them, it is treated as forefather for this tribe.
People of Asia, Africa and Ocenia believed that the dog is able to cause and control fire. According to the legends, it was the dog that got fire with the help of rubbing. In North American and Siberian myths the dog is an inexhaustible inventor, that invented - or even stole – fire for people. Some legends say that people lost their gift of immortality because of the dog’s lapse.
The ancient Chinese astrologists connected various space events with behavior of the Heavenly Dog. It was considered that being angry this deity swallowed the Sun or the Moon – and that caused solar or lunar eclipses. Though according to the Feng Shui doctrine, the Dog personifies a creative and salutary principle Yang. But being “the guard of the night”, it simultaneously symbolizes the destructive principle Yin, carrying destructions and accidents. ”You are lucky not to live during an epoch of changes!” is the wise Chinese wish. It is frequent during the Dog year. These years usually contain reforms in all spheres of life. The archive of the Yin epoch main oracle was found in the province Anyang . There are some inscriptions on divinational bones that are deciphered. They contain recordings of such dog victims:
* « Sacrifice dogs to Mother – square bowl ».
* « to you , I read fortune and say: sacrifice dogs to Mother – square bowl ».
* « read fortune (…): to hunt (in district) Shuay, sacrifice to Fathers - dogs, to Mothers - dogs, to the rivers Progenitress - dogs, to the mountains Progenitress - dogs ».
* « To fry to the Sacred river, it is favorable dogs ».
* « sacrifice to the Mother - progenitress one ram, one dog ».
* « sacrifice to the Mother - progenitress one dog ».
And here is a phrase from « the Catalogue of mountains and people » (“Shan Hai Jing”), made before Christ: “to the River of the Corpse as (spirit) of the Sky sacrifice fat of a sacrificial animal. At its’ headstreams they bury a black dog … » [1].
In crypt Suidugun (China), “a median hole” contained a burial place of a man and an accompanying dog, laid sideways, a head on the north, a muzzle on the West. Also there was a pot and a bowl. The similar content was in the next crypts. One of the funeral chambers had a significant amount of people and even 6 dogs. There are examples when corpses of dogs are near to divinational blade-bone of the animals that were applied by Chinese priests during the rituals.[2].
However in all cases the experts-zoologists were not engaged in studying of bones remained of dogs to test their relating to certain species and breed.
In ancient Chinese texts it is declared that during the bronze epoch there were some breeds of dogs. Vans and rich grandees widely used certain "hounds" of dogs for hunting [3]. During the epoch of the state Shan-In (2 000 B.C.) the statues of chow-chow dogs appeared. In ancient Chinese manuscripts it refers to as " the Tatar dog” or “the dog of barbarians”. So these dogs come from the north, and in the north of China there is Manchuria, which climate is a suitable environment for the chow-chow to have fur with a dense underfur, the round wide paws helping dogs to go on snow. The chow-chow still easier cope with winter and cold, than heat. But the version of its’ origin from Tibet is also probable. It is indisputable that this is the most ancient representative of the pom family and the Tibetan mastiff family. The chow has inherited cheerful nature, ease of movements and ears on top from poms, at the same time from the Tibetan mastiff, it has got massiveness of skeleton, incredulity and protectively-guard properties of character.
It is curious that the chow has bluish-black tongue. This surprising color was attempted to describe in ancient Chinese fairy tales. The chow origin was said to ascend from the Tibetan bear having tongue of the same color. In Northern China these dogs protected monasteries, cattle; people took them hunting both for hooves and bears. They have wonderful sight and instinct.
By the way, the first news about the chow dogs were brought to Europe by the Venetian goldsmith , famous Italian traveler Marko Polo (1275-1292г) who lived in Tibet and China for a long time. He described the Tibetan mastiff as a powerful black dog used for guarding. He also mentioned a certain red dog - the favorite of family, but choosing the only master and who was very reserved with other people. To enter the room which was protected by the chow was unsafe, as though it was protected by the Tibetan mastiff.
Legends and secrets surround decorative breeds of dogs that become favourites of the imperial nobility. In China it is the Pekinese, nicknamed "pearl", "dog-sun", “a sweet flower of a lotus” and “ lion's dog”. From China a very small dog - Japanese bark (treasure, a jewelry) - conducts its’ origin. As gifts from the governors of Tibet given to the Chinese emperor original dogs as symbol of peace and well-being is apso. This small apso, similar to a goat, could predictthe earthquakes, mountain creep and avalanches. And there is a beauty-baby shi-tzu (a chrysanthemum dog) from Tibet. The history of such dogs is connected with Tibet in China, as the Tibetan terrier-zenge (mascot of happiness) and Tibetan spaniel (a prayful dog) [4].
It seems to be strange, but what can unite the baby shi-tzu from Tibet, Tibetan spaniel, the Tibetan terrier, apso, Japanese cinchona, the Pekinese from China, and the chow-chow and enormous Tibetan mastiff - type tzan-sho?
Let's assume, that the cult Buddhist pearl - the Pekinese from China – was brought there together with the Buddhism from Tibet, and Japanese bark was in the same way brought to the Country of the Rising Sun. That is quite logical. Then all these dogs will have four common attributes:
* natives of Tibet, that is inhabitants of high mountains;
* a wide cranial part of a head;
* wide (it is possible to tell, is abnormal) thorax;
* thick and fluffy swung piggyback tail.
These are the main, distinctive adaptable attributes of the Mongolian sheep-dog – and that’s the dog which the book is devoted to. Why - it is possible find out at the end.
The Tibetan mastiff is considered to be the largest wolf-like dog of Asia known in Chin as well. There exist unanswerable cases that they were got outside ancient primordial Chinese empire. One of annalistic sources informed that in the central empires it was possible to get good racers and very large dogs - from the north (it is allocated by the author)(…) Feathers, ivory, skins of rhinoceroses, paints - from the south (…) products from a leather{skin} and a wool, бунчуки from воловьих tails - from the South[5]. This annalistic instruction is interesting because it directly points to the north as the place where the biggest dogs were taken. Speaking about the North the ancient Chinese (and modern) meant the territory behind the Great Chinese wall built to protect the country against northern barbarians, and, first of all, the huns. It is possible to assume that the tribes of the Central Asia had found the Tibetan mastiff even a bit earlier than China. At first, the ancient empire by the bronze epoch was located in a lower course of the river Huang He and directly bordered to the Gobi desert, but it was still far from Tibet.
Some good information about the role of cattle breeding communities of the Central Asia at that time can be brought from the petroglyphic drawings in selengian style [6]. Figures of dogs are available on the petroglyphs of Shara-Tal, Chomnic, Varvarina Mountain in Transbaikalia, Hubsugul-Nura, Havtzgaita and other monuments in Mongolia.
In Hubsugul-Nura, for example, there is a unique picture on a nomadic life of cattlemen where there are two large dogs of the Tibetan type: one guards a livestock (spots- points) in a shelter or a symbol of a pasture, and another put a boundary line around of all this community of people and animals. The pictographic sign "X" in the ancient Chinese hieroglyphics gives quantitative expression of the "caught" game animals - 5 (heads). If we assume as a basis the principle crossgraphic perusals of pictographic writings of the bronze epoch, we shall see in this stage the graphic fixing of the traditional shaman prays about achievement of family happiness and well-being where one dog is called to protect the herd of the livestock, and another to promote the hunting success (tab. 2 [7]).
This image, by the way, is dominating on the petrogliphs at the boundary of this era in all the steppe of the Asian continent, including Transbaikalia, Mongolia, Yakutia, Tuva, Altai and Kirghizia (табл.3-8) [8].
There is some information about the using dogs in the rituals. If it comes to burial places of people , the bones of pets are found in all "tiled" tombs of the Bronze Age - early Iron Age (from 500 years prior to the beginning of the Common Era). They are horses, large and fine horned livestock, dogs and, as rare exception, wild animals. The method of the arrangement of bones is not clear, as all the tombs had been plundered in the ancient time and this has led to infringement of accommodation of the subjects. Only in few cases it is clear that skins of sacrificial animals together with skulls and hoofs were put on the top of the graves. The occurrence of skeleton fragments of dogs testifies that they were buried entirely and, most likely, on the center above overlapping plates [9].
The huns had the funeral ceremony connected with a special role of a dog. It is precisely fixed. In a number of burial places in the Ilmova fold in the south of Transbaikalia (from 1000 up to till 1000 the Common Age ) special burial places of dogs were found. The dog corpses were in stone closets on overlapping with the wooden chambers where men were buried. Considering infringements of tombs from which traces of funeral ceremonies usually suffer, it is possible to assume that the habbit of burying dogs with the dead master was universal. This habbit of dogs following the dead man into eternity was the usual phenomenon, at least, at some groups of the hun population. This ceremony resembles the same uhuan ceremony of alive dog following a funeral procession. After this ceremony the dog was killed and buried.[10]. In Hou Hanshou it is told, that on funeral uhuans fed a dog and a horse, then they put the de ad man on a horse, and a dog followed. Then they pinned up animals and buried them near to a decedent. Thus they said that a dog died had to protect the soul of the master at its’returning to the sacred patrimonial mountain Ujshan from which all the people came [11].
The Uhuans lived in a territory of modern Manchuria during a dynasty Han. Experts believe, that similarity of the funeral ceremonies between the Huns, the Uhuans and the Senbies is the certificate of likeness of these adjoining ethnic groups of the Central Asia at the boundary of epoch. But this opinion can’t be taken for granted: earlier, we have already proved that the burial places of dogs with the dead master are fixed in Siberia since the late Paleolithic or Mesolithic, in China and in Siberia again - in the Neolithic, and in the Central Asia and Transbaikalia - in the Bronze Age. The same ceremony of funeral with a horse (hoilgo) and a “four – eyed dog (hoilog) was told by the scientist, the llama, the historian, the regional specialist G.D.Natsov in the notes on the regional natural history about Buryatiya at the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century.
In this question we closely approach to the totem expressions about what we shall tell further.
As for the Huns, the bones of the dog are found also in the settlements. On the Ivolgin site of ancient settlement (2000 back) in Transbaikalia, at the foundation of an average ditch, at the bottom of specially dug pole the skull of a dog is found. The ritual character of a burial place connected with security functions of this animal was obvious. In a cultural layer outside the inhabited and economic constructions, the bigger part of the finds consists of the bones of pets: a sheep, a bull, a horse, a pig, a goat, a camel, a yak and a dog. Due to some specific structure, archeologists have (conditionally) divided dogs into three groups – husky-like, large wolf-like and dane-like [12]. But still nobody ever tried to determine the breed . All these finds are waiting for the experts: zoologists, biologists, geneticists.
Source: http://www.mongoldog.ru/st2_eng.php
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