A SUPERSTITIOUS DOG. 63 



tions which may have been frequently repeated, and involve nothing 

 incompatible with what is going on on the surface of the globe in our 

 own day. In speaking thus, we do not regard Europe, but the interior 

 of tropical countries, and the parts of those lands where water, heat, 

 and an exuberant vegetation are combined upon a ground the configu- 

 ration of which is agreeable to the material conditions that have been 

 postulated in this sketch. 



A SUPERSTITIOUS DOG. 



By EUGENE N. S. EINGUEBEEG. 



THAT many of the higher animals are possessed of reason does 

 not, in the light of modern science and recorded facts, need any 

 argument ; only the question of degree remains to be determined in 

 the future. 



It is among domesticated species that we have the best opportuni- 

 ties for studying the mental phenomena of the lower animals, but 

 here they are often greatly modified by contact with man ; and, as 

 these abnormal modifications are the ones that we can most readily in- 

 terpret, they must necessarily form the major portion of our data. 



Observation of their habits can not fail to convince us that many 

 individuals, if not all of the brute creation, are possessed of a consid- 

 erable degree of imaginative faculty. Every one has watched a dog 

 in dream-land : his feet will go through the motion of running ; occa- 

 sionally a few smothered barks will be heard, showing his eagerness 

 in the imagined chase in which he is engaged ; or his tail will wag 

 rapidly, probably indicating a meeting with a pleasant acquaintance. 

 He may even start up, and then, awakened by his energetic action, 

 his countenance will show plainly, as he turns to lie down again, how 

 sheepish he feels about the exhibition that he has involuntarily made 

 of himself. 



In the fall of 1879 an eccentric pointer came into my possession, 

 or rather he adopted me for his master. He was a genuine canine 

 tramp, with all the peculiarities of the human variety ; stealing his 

 food or lodging whenever he had a chance, or deferentially begging it 

 when that method would answer his purpose better. He had been in 

 the habit, as we afterward found out, of roaming about from place to 

 place in the town, selecting first one home and then another. He was 

 something over two years old when he came to me ; his color was coal- 

 black, and he soon learned to answer to the cognomen of Pluto. 



After he had been with me a few months, certain peculiar mental 

 traits began to manifest themselves. He became subject to attacks of 

 apparent mental derangement, lasting from a few minutes to several 

 hours, which increased in frequency and violence up to the time when 



