BRIEF X0TE3. 



191 



into the briny deep, got beyond his depth, held 

 his head under the water, and soon ceased to be. 

 The fishermen conveyed the true, although strange 

 and startling, tidings to the respected owner, 

 that his horse had committed suicide.' " — {Dundee 

 Advertiser.) 



There are several other authenticated cases 

 on record where dogs have committed suicide by 

 drowning. It is important, as showing inten- 

 tion, that dogs are perfectly aware of the results 

 of prolonged immersion in water, as evinced by 

 their so frequently rescuing children when in 

 danger of drowning. Were dead brutes hon- 

 ored with a searching investigation, we might 

 perhaps find such instances far more frequent 

 than we suspect. They have, however, scantier 

 facilities for self-murder than man, and possibly 

 slighter temptations, as being, doubtless, upon 

 the whole, less miserable. 



The various actions above mentioned are all 

 departures from the normal or natural conduct 

 of the species concerned, and of course lead us 

 again to the conclusion that brutes can do wrong, 

 and if wrong, that they are consequently able 

 also to do right. 



Perhaps it may be argued by the captious 

 that though gluttony, neglect of offspring, sui- 

 cide, and the like, are wrong in themselves, and 

 are hurtful to the offending animal and its spe- 

 cies, yet that brutes have no conscience, and 

 neither feel any satisfaction in "obeying the 

 laws " of their nature, nor any remorse upon 

 transgression. To this we may in the first place 

 reply with a tu quoque — a retort for once satis- 

 factory, as it withdraws the pretended distinc- 



tion. Man does not appear to have any inborn 

 and infallible knowledge of right and wrong. 

 His vaunted conscience, when it is more than a 

 mere figure of speech, is a creature of conven- 

 tions and traditions. There is no vice, no crime 

 even, how horrible soever, which at some time or 

 in some part of the world man has not practised 

 without a shadow of self-reproach. He has suf- 

 fered, indeed, from his errors, but no more than 

 the brutes does he, generally speaking, trace his 

 sufferings to their true causes. Sir J. Lubbock 

 states in his " Origin of Civilization" that, after 

 inspecting nearly all existing records of savage 

 life, he was unable to find any case of a savage 

 having evinced remorse after the commission of 

 any crime. 



But, on the other hand, does man really knoio 

 that brutes are void of all trace of conscience — 

 that they feel no joy when they have acted 

 aright, and no sorrow when they have done 

 amiss ? He has no proof — merely wanton as- 

 sumption. Facts prove that certain animals do 

 feel shame, sorrow, or remorse, when they have 

 departed from what to them is the standard of 

 right ; and what more can reasonably or fairly be 

 demanded ? 



We have thus, we submit, established that 

 the lower animals have a moral life, that they 

 can do right or do wrong, and that, like man, 

 they avail themselves of their power to do the 

 latter. Surely henceforth a fellow-feeling ought 

 to make him wondrous kind to them all. Com- 

 munity in vice, or even in peccadillos, has always 

 been a wonderful leveler of distinctions. — Quar- 

 terly Journal of Science. 



BEIEF NOTES. 



Funeral Ceremonies at the Nicobar Islands. — 

 We take from the Geographical Magazine the 

 following interesting extract from a letter by F. 

 E. Tusou : " Last night I went over to Malacca, and 

 found that one of the old men had died suddenly, 

 and been buried just before I got there. A raft 

 of long trunks of trees, with a house on it made 

 of cocoanut-leaves, and with one large leaf placed 

 upright to act as a sail, was lying opposite the 

 dead man's hut, to convey away his 'iwi,' or 

 spirit, when the maulooennas, or medicine-men, 

 had caught it. They are awfully afraid of these 

 ' iwis ; ' and all the inhabitants were sitting in 

 their houses, afraid to move out. They attribute 



all fever, and sickness, and calamity, to their 

 ' iwis.' I found the maulooennas placing all the 

 property of the deceased round about his tomb, 

 and hanging up his hats, clothes, etc., on a post 

 placed at his head. Everything a man or woman 

 possesses is placed on his or her tomb, and never 

 used again ; the poultry and pigs are killed. The 

 widow was in a house near, which was full of all 

 the women in the place. She has to sit three 

 days in a dark corner, with a cloth over her, and 

 to see and speak to no one during that time. The 

 ' iwi,' it seemed, would not come till night-time, 

 when everything was quiet, so I was unable to 

 see the operation of catching it, but I found out 



