their respective languages of action and of voice were mutually
intelligible. The animal which above all others is a companion to
man is the dog, and we observe how readily their proceedings are
intelligible to each other. Every whine or bark of the dog, each of
his fawning, savage, or timorous movements is the exact counterpart
of what would have been the man's behaviour, had he felt similar
emotions. As the man understands the thoughts of the dog, so the dog
understands the thoughts of the man, by attending to his natural
voice, his countenance, and his actions. A man irritates a dog by an
ordinary laugh, he frightens him by an angry look, or he calms him
by a kindly bearing; but he has less spontaneous hold over an ox or a
sheep. He must study their ways and tutor his behaviour before he
can either understand the feelings of those animals or make his own
intelligible to them. He has no natural power at all over many other
creatures. Who, for instance, ever succeeded in frowning away a
mosquito, or in pacifying an angry wasp by a smile?

_Desire of Comfort_.--This is a motive which strongly attaches
certain animals to human habitations, even though they are unwelcome:
it is a motive which few persons who have not had an opportunity of
studying animals in savage lands are likely to estimate at its true
value. The life of all beasts in their wild state is an exceedingly
anxious one. From my own recollection, I believe that every antelope
in South Africa has to run for its life every one or two days upon
an average, and that he starts or gallops under the influence of a
false alarm many times in a day. Those who have crouched at night by
the side of pools in the desert, in order to have a shot at the
beasts that frequent them, see strange scenes of animal life; how
the creatures gambol at one moment and fight at another; how a herd
suddenly halts in strained attention, and then breaks into a
maddened rush, as one of them becomes conscious of the stealthy
movements or rank scent of a beast of prey. Now this hourly
life-and-death excitement is a keen delight to most wild creatures,
but must be peculiarly distracting to the comfort-loving temperament
of others. The latter are alone suited to endure the crass habits
and dull routine of domesticated life. Suppose that an animal which
has been captured and half-tamed, received ill-usage from his captors,
either as punishment or through mere brutality, and that he rushed
indi