178 OUR HUMBLE HELPERS 



it lias been acquired. Dogs that have gone back to 

 the wild state, as for example those of South Amer- 

 ica, can no longer bark. Deserters from civiliza- 

 tion, they have lost the language and are reduced 

 to their primitive howling, which they share with 

 the jackal and the wolf." 



4 'And how does a dog learn to bark when it is with 

 us?" 



"It learns by hearing its fellows, the other dogs, 

 bark. If it were brought up far from its own kind, 

 it would never know how to bark, any more than we 

 could speak our language if we had never heard it 

 spoken. Well, the jackal also can acquire the habit 

 of barking by education. Placed in company with 

 the dog, which by its example initiates it into a new 

 language, it barks at first badly, then a little better, 

 then well, and in a short time the scholar almost 

 equals the master. 



"The primitive species, if it really is the jackal, 

 must have, as you see, undergone profound changes 

 affecting even its most inveterate habits, to become 

 the domestic dog. It must have lost its habit of noc- 

 turnal prowling, forgotten its predilection for con- 

 certs of ear-piercing cries, learned to bark, and, what 

 is far more difficult, exchanged its timidity for bold- 

 ness. Another improvement was indispensable. 

 The jackal gives forth from all over its body a strong 

 fishy smell. To become the companion of man and 

 to live in his home, the animal had to be rid of this 

 infection. That is what the progress of time has 

 done almost completely : to-day the dog has scarcely 



