388 Appendix. 



It is plain to all who observe their actions that the lower 

 animals have no comprehension of death. In the case of two 

 animals that are accustomed to play or to be much together, 

 if one dies, or is killed, and its body left, the other will come 

 to sniff at, touch, and at last try to rouse it ; but finding all 

 attempts vain, it will at length go away to seek companion- 

 ship elsewhere. In cases where the attachment is much 

 stronger, the dead body may be watched over for an indefinite 

 period. A brother of mine once related to me a very pathetic 

 incident which occurred at an estancia on the pampas where 

 he was staying. A large portion of the land was a low, level, 

 marshy plain, partly overgrown with reeds and rushes ; and 

 one day, in this wilderness, a little boy of eight or nine, 

 from the estancia, lost himself. A small dog, his invariable 

 attendant, had gone out with him, but did not return. 

 Seven days later the poor boy was found, at a great distance 

 from the house, lying on the grass, where he had died of ex- 

 haustion. The dog was lying coiled up at his side, and 

 appeared to be sleeping ; but, when spoken to, he did not 

 stir, and was presently found to be dead too. The dog could 

 have gone back at any moment to the estancia, but his 

 instinct of attachment overcame all others ; he kept guard 

 over his little master, who slept so soundly and so long, until 

 he, too, slept in the same way. 



A still more remarkable case of this kind was given in one 

 of my books, of a gaucho, accompanied by his dog, who was 

 chased and overtaken by a troop of soldiers during one of 

 the civil wars in Uruguay. Suspecting him of being a spy, 

 or, at all events, an enemy, his captors cut his throat, then 

 rode away, calling to the dog to follow them ; but the animal 

 refused to leave his dead master's side. Eeturning to the 

 spot a few days later, they saw the body of the man they 

 had killed surrounded by a large number of vultures, which 

 the dog, in a frenzy of excitement, was occupied in keeping 

 at a respectable distance. It was observed that the dog, 

 after making one of his sallies, driving the birds away with 

 furious barkings, would set out at a run to a small stream 



