AND ITS INHABITANTS 177 



for many of them were influenced by the glacial stages or minor 

 epochs which succeeded the last glacial epoch. 



Taming of wild animals. The taming of wild animals was 

 one of these steps. The dog was apparently the first domestic 

 animal. His contribution to civilization, however, is slight, 

 for instead of lifting man out of the hunting stage, he pre- 

 serves it. If the hunter becomes a tiller of the soil he does not 

 want dogs, for he no longer has a frequent surplus of meat 

 which will spoil if the dogs do not eat it. While he remains a 

 hunter, however, the dogs not only help their master to find 

 wild animals, but serve as a reserve supply of food in times of 

 scarcity. Among the American Indians no delicacy was for- 

 merly more esteemed than a fat young puppy. The taming of 

 the dog was in itself no great feat. It was easy to bring home a 

 wild puppy, which grew up as tame as though its ancestors 

 had long been domesticated. This, however, was the step 

 which apparently led to the domestication of other and more 

 useful animals. It probably did not occur within the tropics, 

 for today the wolf-like creatures from which the dog is sup- 

 posed to be descended do not appear to be found within twenty- 

 five degrees of the equator. 



Other domestic animals far surpass the dog in utility. 

 Lowest among these stands the pig. This creature is highly 

 useful as a source of food, but cannot easily be domesticated 

 unless the art of agriculture is well developed, for it is not 

 readily herded, and its food is primarily the products of agri- 

 culture rather than grass. Therefore, though the pig might 

 have helped civilization, it never had the chance, because be- 

 fore it was kept in large numbers the tillage of the ground had 

 already done all, and more than all, that the pig could do in 

 this line. So far as climate goes it might have been domesti- 

 cated almost anywhere from the equator to the temperate 

 zone. 



The horse, the ox, and the sheep stand in a different cate- 



