cooking dogs [was: .dombii as scavenger woman]

[Jaap Pranger]

On Wed, 23 Apr 2000, Michael Witzel wrote:

>Finally, Kuiper connnects Santali DoDom DoDom 'sound of drumming', and with
>a slightly different -o-, DoDom DoDom 'sound of Doms drumming when arriving
>in a village' with  the word Dom designating  a 'certain low Hindu caste,
>... small agriculturists and .... drummers' = Hindi Dom(b), Skt. Domba,
>Pkt. Dumba  (who cook dogs!)

Who is the authority for this statement on dog-cooking Doms?
I remember having read about certain castes eating dogs, mentioned
in Manusmriti, going by a name (I forgot) that translated as "dog-eaters".

Could it be that by "dog" is meant: (H.) giida.r? Rightly or wrongly
translated as jackal? I suppose the Latin name for giida.r is Canis aureus,
at least this was the name given in a zoological garden in India I once
visited. Between the wild giida.r and (certain) domesticated dogs there
is great similarity, but the giida.r does not at all look like what I
think of as a jackal.

As a matter of fact, I myself am a "dog-eater", having partaken of
nicely cooked giidar.r as the guest of a community in Himachal Pr.
quite often. So all information about the subject you can share
will be very much appreciated. (As well as references to stories
about the giida.r-siingii and its supposed magical properties.)

Thanks,

Jaap

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