THE CAT'S PAJAMAS XXXVII

Tad Tuleja

 

A collection of the (mostly) true origins of familiar phrases 

 

A DOG'S LIFE

Many dogs live fairly decent lives, so why is the expression a dog's life associated with misery? It is not because of canine deprivation, but because the DORG caste of the Afghani foothills are among the most despised of the world's despised minorities. Thought to have emigrated from somewhere in the Himalayas hundreds of years ago, the Dorgs practice a primitive form of nature worship which makes them outcasts among the Muslim population, and which long ago forced them to take up residence in the arid and  aptly named Zereh Depression. There, as amateur ethnologist Lady India Dove-Nolen described them, they "spend their days digging for lizards, praying for the rain that never comes, and attempting to secure sustenance from the occasional traveler in exchange for a handful of their "sacred" sand." By about the early 1800's, their marginal condition made "a Dorg's life" proverbial for extreme poverty, and also gave rise to the catchphrases "sick as a Dorg" and "Go to the Dorgs" - the latter as an Afghani equivalent of "go to Hell." With the 1898 publication of Dove-Nolen's book in England, all these expressions came into vogue. It was barely a generation later that Dorg became corrupted into dog, and the original meanings were forgotten.