THE RELIGION OF NATURE 



the otherwise inexplicable phase of canine devo- 

 tion to a bad master. Everyone must have had oc- 

 casion to notice that a dog is often peculiarly 

 devoted to an owner who ill-uses it. Dickens has 

 illustrated this well in the relations between Bill 

 Sikes and his cur. 



The reason of it is, of course, that the leader of 

 the pack of the dog's wild ancestors only kept his 

 place by his readiness and ability to fall upon any 

 other member of the pack who incurred his slight- 

 est displeasure. The more tyrannical his conduct, 

 the more fawning became the submission of the 

 rest. You may see this process at work for the 

 good of the race because thus the strongest and 

 most cruel become the type of the hunting animal 

 among the packs of pariah dogs in India. 



By the light of the foregoing we understand, 

 too, the third curious phenomenon of domestica- 

 tion referred to above, namely, the contrast be- 

 tween the devotion of a dog to its master, and that 

 of a cat to the place where it lives. If a man, own- 

 ing both a dog and a cat, were to remove from 

 his home to another house, say, half a mile away, 

 taking only the cat with him, and if both animals 

 were let loose at the same time, it is more than 

 likely that they would actually pass each other on 

 the road, the dog going to rejoin its old master 

 and the cat returning to its old home. 

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