iv SHIFTS FOR A LIVING 71 



sensory stimulation, and it may be that this is at the 

 root of the capacity for " feigning death ' or ' playing 

 possum," which we see in many insects and crustaceans. 

 In the state of animal hypnosis, seen, for instance, when 

 a snake " becomes a stick," there is a sleep-like inability 

 to move or to " right ' the body when placed in an 

 abnormal pose. There is a striking change in the tone 

 of the muscles and a great decrease in sensitiveness to 

 touch and to pain. It cannot be separated off from 

 human hypnosis experimentally induced ; and thus we 

 have a long inclined plane of states still imperfectly 

 understood from the sudden stoppage already referred 

 to up to prolonged trance. 



It is impossible to enumerate all the protective adapta- 

 tions which animals exhibit. Let us cite but one more 

 from Prof. Hickson's Naturalist in North Celebes. ' I 

 often saw advancing slowly over the sea-gardens, in 

 parties of from four to six, a group of cuttle-fish, 

 swimming with an even backward movement, the fringes 

 of their mantles and their arms trembling, and their 

 colour gradually changing to what seemed to me an 

 almost infinite variety of hues as they passed over the 

 various beds of the sea-bottom. Then suddenly there 

 would be a commotion in what was previously a calm 

 and placid scene, the striped and speckled reef fishes 

 would be seen darting away in all directions, and of the 

 cuttle-fishes all that remained were four or five clouds 

 of ink in the clear water. They had thrown dust in the 



/ 



eyes of some small shark or voracious fish." 



But in spite of all these " shifts," we must not imagine 

 that animals are careful and troubled, -for the very 

 opposite is the case. 



" They do not sweat and whine about their condition. 



They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins, 



They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God, 



Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented 



With the mania of owning things ; 



Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands 



of years ago ; 

 Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth." 



WALT WHITMAN. 



