53 o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



theoretically, and it is made probable by numerous experiments, that 

 there are few among the superior species that would resist a method- 

 ical and persistent training. It should be remarked that except the 

 cat, which is largely indocile, most of our really domestic animals 

 belong to social species which in the natural state lived in larger 

 or smaller hordes or companies, and whose communal life had 

 taught them to submit to the more or less despotic will of their 

 stronger companions. But there are social species which man has 

 not domesticated, and there are other species which only require a 

 longer education. In fact, various solitary and ferocious animals, 

 as the wolf, bear, lion, panther, etc., have more than once been 

 tamed or broken in by special education; and during the prevalence 

 of the amorous passion the females of the wildest animals permit 

 themselves to be approached by man, and even ask to be caressed. 

 Experience has shown that all training is relatively easy when 

 addressed to the young. By judicious application to the business, 

 by being severe or kind upon occasion, animals of the most ferocious 

 species have been tamed. A panther has been taught to use its 

 paws gently as a cat, simply by rewarding it with a little lavender 

 water, the odor of which is delicious to it. But it should be said 

 by way of caution that with animals as well as with man, a too 

 brutal education destroys the character by developing a malicious 

 cunning, only partly dissimulated by an apparent submission. 



Vicious horses are generally the result of a violent, barbarous 

 training, and when the greater number of the horses in any country 

 are tricky and hard to manage, it means that they belong to a brutal 

 population. From time immemorial the contrary has been the case 

 among the Arabs, where colts are brought up and exercised with 

 almost maternal solicitude. The child amuses itself by petting and 

 playing with the colt of which he is some day to be the rider, and the 

 horse and his cavalier grow up together. The earliest education 

 of the young animal begins in the family, in the same tent. The 

 colt is constantly looked after and caressed, and is never chastised 

 except for acts of malice or disobedience. He is given the choicest 

 dainties of food, and is gradually accustomed to make himself useful. 

 When the bit is put in his mouth the iron is covered with wool, so 

 that it shall not bruise his lips, the wool having been dipped in salt 

 water to give it a pleasant flavor and make him like it. The animal's 

 education is thus always carried on with constant discretion, and even 

 after it is completed the trainers never indulge in blows or hard 

 words. By such association a real bond of friendship is formed be- 

 tween the beast and his rider. 



The art of falconry alone is enough to prove that it is possible by 

 a proper mixture of severity and kindness to tame to a certain extent, 



