THE RELIGION OF NATUEE 



animals ; and when the vermin-killer has reaped 

 or, rather, scattered his usual crop of poisoned 

 rats, the perturbation of the cattle is sometimes 

 great. When the ancestors of our cows were wild 

 so long ago that we hardly guess who their 

 ancestors were life-saving instinct taught them 

 to become furious and crowd together at the scent 

 of blood. For blood on the grass or a corpse on 

 the track meant the near presence of the dreaded 

 tiger; and only in close order with hysteric rage 

 could they trample the striped fiend into the earth. 



Centuries upon centuries of lives of sloth passed 

 uneventfully between pasture, stall, and milking- 

 shed have not robbed them of this fierce, wild 

 instinct. So now, you will often hear that strange, 

 low bellow by which a bull or cow announces the 

 discovery of death in the way, and see the herd 

 galloping together at the summons, and then 

 standing, uncertain, gazing at the beast which 

 raised the alarm, while for the space of several 

 minutes it carefully and critically sniffs up the 

 odors of a dead rat which the crows have torn 

 open. Surely, then, it is not necessary to credit 

 an ox with the gift of mysterious foreknowledge 

 of death, if it sometimes displays reluctance to 

 enter premises tainted with blood? 



Of course, the most dangerous class of popular 

 errors are those which are propagated by writers 

 [88] 



