STORY OF ONCIDIUM SPLENDIDUM 247 



could have expected to find an Oncidium buried among 

 herbage in the open ground ? 



The ox demands a word. Such trained animals are not 

 uncommon in Central America. The process of education 

 is very cruel. By constant tapping, their horns are loosened 

 when young, so that the tortured beast obeys the slightest 

 pressure. Its movements in walking are thus directed, and 

 when the horns grow firm again it continues to recognise a 

 touch. But the degrees of intelligence in brutes are strikingly 

 displayed here. Some forget the lesson in a twelvemonth. 

 Most are uncertain. A very few, like Pablo's, understand so 

 well what is required of them that direction is needless. In 

 that case the hunter can walk backwards, keeping his body 

 quite concealed. He is almost sure to kill, unless the fault 

 be his own. 



