DOMESTICATION AND TAMING. 



especially of those fictitious appetites which man himself excites 

 and creates, and which he alone can gratify. 



Hunger holds the first and most important place among these. 

 It is by playing upon this appetite that the horse is tamed and 

 trained. But little food is given at a time, and even that only at 

 long intervals. The animal, ignorant that he who tends him is the 

 cause of his privation, has full knowledge that it is by him that 

 this privation is relieved, and if some choice aliment exciting to 

 the palate is occasionally supplied, the authority of the master 

 is augmented, and the gratitude and affection of the animal 

 strongly awakened. It is by certain dainties, and especially by 

 sugar, judiciously supplied and withheld, that the horses of the 

 circus are brought to perform feats which create such general 

 astonishment. 



Privation of sleep is an agent of subjugation even more potent 

 than hunger ; and it is by hunger, pushed to excess, by the appli- 

 cation of the whip, by stunning and alarming noises, such as those 

 of the drum, and certain wind instruments, that this forced wake- 

 fulness is maintained. 



By such means the urgent wants of the animal are excited ; 

 the power of the master is, however, acquired, not by the wants 

 themselves, but by exhibiting himself in the most unmistakeable 

 manner to the suffering creature as the agent of its relief. Not 

 satisfied with presenting himself as the agent for the relief of 

 real physical wants, he artfully creates fictitious ones, not only 

 physical but moral. Choice food is now and then given, which 

 none but the master can supply ; but besides this the animal is 

 rendered sensible to caresses, and after a time becomes most 

 grateful for them. The elephant, the horse, and the cat are pas- 

 sionately sensible of the kindness of those with whom they are 

 domesticated, but it is over the dog, more than any other, that 

 the sway of this moral power extends. 



A female wolf, in the Garden of Plants at Paris, became so 

 sensitive to the caresses of its keeper, that it testified a delirium 

 of joy at the sound of his voice or the touch of his hand. A 

 Senegal jackal betrayed like emotions excited by a similar cause, 

 and a common fox was habitually so affected by the caresses 

 of its keeper that it was found necessary to discontinue such 

 excitement.* 



The process of subjugation of the wild animal is then one which 

 attains its object by address and seduction. Natural wants are 

 made to be felt, and fictitious ones are created, that man may 

 have the merit of supplying them. He thus renders himself more 



* Mem., Fred. Cuvier. 



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