In the hunt, the hound leads—seeing, hearing, and scenting the prey before its master, who follows its bark, is able to do so—and fetches back small game in its mouth. Man's best friend has a dark side as well: the domesticated dog can turn rabid, predatory, or feral, in which cases it may endanger the very humans and livestock it normally protects. Furthermore, the dog's gluttony may be a stronger impulse than its faithfulness to its master, and its indiscriminate eating habits allow it to consume carrion, excrements, and other impure substances, including the bodies of humans slain in battle.
All of these canine qualities and behaviors have made for an intimate association between dogs and death in the world's religions. Gods of death, such as the Greek Hekate, the Indian Yama and Bhairava, and the Teutonic Garmr, are often identified with or accompanied by dogs that guard the gates to their realms. Very often, the dog is cast as a hell-hound that tracks down and even devours the errant dead, for which reason the dead may be buried together with a sop to distract it, as in the case of the Sārameya—the twin dogs of the Indian death god Yama—the Greek Cerberus, and the Nicaraguan Tausun Tara.
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