king dog

From The Dog by William Youatt (London: Charles Knight and Co., 1845):

In Ethiopia, not only was great veneration paid to the dog, but the
inhabitants used to elect a dog as their king. He was kept in great state, and
surrounded by a numerous train of officers and guards. When he fawned upon them,
he was supposed to be pleased with their proceedings; when he growled, he
disapproved of the manner in which their government was conducted. These
indications of his will were implicitly obeyed, or rather, perhaps, were
translated by his worshippers as their own caprice or interest dictated.

Even a thousand years after this period the dog was highly esteemed in
Egypt for its sagacity and other excellent qualities ; for, when Pythagoras,
after his return from Egypt, founded a new sect in Greece, and at Croton, in
southern Italy, he taught, with the Egyptian philosophers, that, at the death of
the body, the soul entered into that of different animals. He used, after the
decease of any of his favourite disciples, to cause a dog to be held to the
mouth of the dying man, in order to receive his departing spirit; saying, that
there was no animal that could perpetuate his virtues better than that
quadruped.