A LIFE OF FEAR 195 



frequently caught by the cat. My Nig, as black as 

 ebony, knows well the taste of his flesh. I have 

 known him to be caught by the black snake and suc- 

 cessfully swallowed. The snake, no doubt, lay in 

 ambush for him. 



This fear, this ever present source of danger of 

 the wild creatures, we know little about. Probably 

 the only person in the civilized countries who is no 

 better off than the animals in this respect is the Czar 

 of Russia. He would not even dare gather nuts as 

 openly as my squirrel. A blacker and more terrible 

 cat than Nig would be lying in wait for him and 

 would make a meal of him. The early settlers in 

 this country must have experienced something of 

 this dread of apprehension from the Indians. Many 

 African tribes now live in the same state of constant 

 fear of the slave-catchers or of other hostile tribes. 

 Our ancestors, back in prehistoric times, or back of 

 that in geologic times, must have known fear as a 

 constant feeling. Hence the prominence of fear in 

 infants and children when compared with the youth 

 or the grown person. Babies are nearly always afraid 

 of strangers. 



In the domestic animals also, fear is much more 

 active in the young than in the old. Nearly every 

 farm boy has seen a calf but a day or two old, which 

 its mother has secreted in the woods or in a remote 

 field, charge upon him furiously with a wild bleat, 

 when first discovered. After this first ebullition of 

 fear, it usually settles down into the tame humdrum 

 of its bovine elders. 



