d polecat, "to give them more devil." According to Varro, the wild
ass was formerly caught and crossed with the tame animal to improve the
breed, in the same manner as at the present day the natives of Java
sometimes drive their cattle into the forests to cross with the wild
Banteng (_Bos sondaicus_).[496] In Northern Siberia, among the Ostyaks the
dogs vary in markings in different districts, but in each place they are
spotted black and white in a remarkably uniform manner;[497] and from this
fact alone we may infer careful breeding, more especially as the dogs of
one locality are famed throughout the country for their superiority. I have
heard of certain tribes of Esquimaux who take pride in their teams of dogs
being uniformly coloured. In Guiana, as Sir R. Schomburgk informs me,[498]
the dogs of the Turuma Indians are highly valued and extensively bartered:
the price of a good one is the same as that given for a wife: they are kept
in a sort of cage, and the Indians "take great care when the female is in
season to prevent her uniting with a dog of an inferior description." The
Indians told Sir Robert that, if a dog proved bad or useless, {207} he was
not killed, but was left to die from sheer neglect. Hardly any nation is
more barbarous than the Fuegians, but I hear from Mr. Bridges, the
Catechist to the Mission, that, "when these savages have a large, strong,
and active bitch, they take care to put her to a fine dog, and even take
care to feed her well, that her young may be strong and well favoured."

In the interior of Africa, negroes, who have not associated with white men,
show great anxiety to improve their animals: they "always choose the larger
and stronger males for stock:" the Malakolo were much pleased at
Livingstone's promise to send them a bull, and some Bakalolo carried a live
cock all the way from Loanda into the interior.[499] Further south on the
same continent, Andersson states that he has known a Damara give two fine
oxen for a dog which struck his fancy. The Damaras take great delight in
having whole droves of cattle of the same colour, and they prize their oxen
in proportion to the size of their horns. "The Namaquas have a perfect
mania for a uniform team; and almost all the people of Southern Africa
value their cattle next to their women, and take a pride in possessing
animals that look high-bred." "They rarely or never make use of a handsome
animal as a beast of burden."[500] The power of discrimi