108 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Dkc. 'J, 1881. 



wliitlipr he has lieen. For the speech cunnot transcend 

 tlu' thought, and, thcrcfori', can rpprpspnt neither to him- 

 self nor to liis heiirers the tlid'erenco between the illusions 

 of tlie night and tiie realities of the day. The dead rela- 

 tions and friends wlio ajipear in dreams and live their old 

 life ; with whom ho joins in the battle or the chase ; with 

 whom, the toils over, lie sits down to fea.st, not, like the 

 Psalmist, in tlie jiresencc of his enemies, liut \ipon suc- 

 culent slices of the enemies themselves ; tlie foes with 

 whom he struggles, the wild lieasts from which he flees, or 

 in whose grip he feels himself, and, shrieking, awakens 

 his squaw ; the long distances hi' travels to dreamlands 

 lieyond and above — are all real, and no " basi;Kss fabric of 

 a vision." The belief is strengthened by that intensified 

 form of dreaming called " nightmare,"* when gaping, 

 grinning, spectre-monsters sit upon the breast, stopping 

 breath and paralysing motion, which has helped to create 

 the vast army of nocturnal demons that till the folk-lore of 

 the world, and that under infinite variety of liideousness 

 have had lodgment for centuries in the beliefs of higher 

 races. 



What Schoolcraft says of the Indian mind, that " a 

 dream or a fact is alike patent to it, ' ajiplies throughout 

 tlie whole range of the lower culture, a marked and wide- 

 spread form of the confusion being in the belief that the 

 soul leaves the body during sleep. Among the Zulus, 

 when dead relatives appear to a man in his sleep, he 

 concludes that their spirits still live, and the savage notion, 

 that a sleeper should not be wakened, because of the 

 possible absence of his soul, finds some continuity in the 

 l)elief of inediieval times, that trance and catalepsy were 

 proofs of the temporary departure of the soul from the 

 body. Hence, as ]SIr. Fisko has remarked, "it was no 

 easy matter for a person accustxl of witchcraft to prove an 

 alibi; for to any amount of evidence showing that the 

 body was innocently reposing at home and in bed, the 

 answer was obvious, that the soul may, nevertheless, have 

 been in attendance at the witches' Sabbath, or busied in 

 maiming a neighbour's cattle ! " 



(To be continued.) 



INTELLIGENCE IX ANIMALS. 



WIGAN, in his " Duality of the Mind," says that he 

 once offered an apple to an elephant, letting the 

 apple drop at the moment the elephant was about to seize 

 it, so that it rolled out of its reach. The elephant waited 

 a moment to see if Wigan would pick it up, and Ijeing dis- 

 appointed in this expectation, set himself to blow violently 

 against the opposite wall, and the recoil forced the ajijile 

 to his feet. 'This may be regarded as a case of pnictical, 

 rather than of alistract reasoning. Yet, as M'igan remarks, 

 it was a trick which no one could has c taught the animal, 

 and "it must have arisen from a process of reflection per- 

 fectly similar to that which takes jilace in the human 

 mind " under similar conditions. We have, indeed, he 

 justly remarks, " examples of human minds not even 

 capable of the degree of thought po.ssessed in this instanci? 

 by the elejiliant, yet performing, by a sort of automaey (sir) 

 all the ordinary functions necessary to their occupation. 

 In some of the mechanical processes in our great manu- 

 factories, where the minute subdivision of labour reduces 

 the art of each individual aliiio.st to the veiy ultimate 

 elements of muscular motion, 1 think that I have seen 

 individuals incapable of a similar process." 



In the following instance, from the same work, we have 



• i.e. Night-spirit. A.S. mare, nympli. 



ingenuity combined with, and suggested hy, indignation : 

 " A largi' grey spider established himself in a recess 

 formed by a shed and a projection of the house, and taking 

 his long line diagonally from the corner of the house to the 

 eaves of a small building which was at the lx)ttom of the 

 recess, he then filled up the triangular .space with a well- 

 defined circular web. I had noticed with atlniiratioit 

 during the day his wonderful skill, the accuracy of his lines, 

 and the e<|uality of the spaces, and observed how carefully 

 he pushed down his line, and fast«'ned it securely v/ith 

 his two hind feet to each radius in succession. When he 

 had finished al>out two-thirds of his concentric circles, 

 or rather of his helix, he went to the centre and swallowed 

 a ((uantity of white t<'nacious mucus, which he had depo- 

 sited there at the commencement, having apparently spun 

 himself out ; he then proceeded to complete his work, 

 wliich having accomplished, and thus reduced himself to 

 very small diiaension.s, he hung hiiii.self up by the hind 

 legs, and I presume went to sleep. The slightest touch of 

 a fly was, however, sufficient to make him start out, 

 and having wi-apped up a few of them in his toils 

 and well stocked his larder, he again betook himself to 

 repo.se. In the meantime, one of the smaller spiders, con- 

 sidering that the diagonal line of his neigh) lOur was strong 

 enough to bear two webs, began to attach his lines to it, 

 and having so done in four or Ave places, proceeded to spin 

 his own web. My older friend tolerated tlie intitision very 

 patiently, and acquiesced in the use his neighbour was 

 making of the " party wall," though against spi<ler hn'-. 

 By-and-by the newcomer, having partly fitted up his nv. n 

 trap, and finding that no flies came into it, obsenini;, I 

 presume, the ample supply of food in his neighbour's \<f 

 mises, advanced along one of his own lines, seemingly f' r 

 the purpose of open burglary. My old friend had tolerat d 

 much, but tliis was a degree of impudence for which l.^- 

 was not prepared, and wliich he determined to punish 

 forthwith. He proceeded to the centre of his web, and 

 giving the whole fi-amewoik a violent shake, hoped to .shake 

 the intruder down upon the gi-ound. He did no more, how- 

 ever, than turn him round on the line, where he hung vrj v 

 patiently till the shaking ceased, and then resumed his mai\ li 

 towards his neighbours territory. Again and again, and 

 with increasing \ iolence, did the large spider shake hi.<! 

 web — it was all in vain ; there was the enemy advancing, 

 and though so small as to be easily overpowered, should he 

 reach the mainland, the insult of the attempt was intoler- 

 able. On looking round, my elder friend saw that, during 

 the violent shakes, he had V)roken two or three of his own 

 short lines, and he left his opponent and set himself to 

 work to mend them. Having completed the task to his 

 perfect satisfaction, he returned to the burglar. The latter, 

 when he came near, saw at once that he had been rash in 

 provoking such an enemy, and hurried back to his own 

 web. When his opponent saw him on his thin line in his 

 retreat, he again set himself to his shaking fit, and made 

 the most \ioleiit eftbi-ts to throw him down ; it was all in 

 vain, however, and he got safe home. After a moment s 

 consideration, the other .seemed to think tliat so audacious 

 an attenijit ought to be condigiily jiunished, and he deter- 

 mined to retort the invasion. The thin lines of his dimi- 

 nutive antagonist, however, did not aft'ord a sutlicient 

 sujipoit for his heavy bulk, and as he advanced, he carefully 

 spun a strengthener upon the other's tenuous cord. It was 

 now the littli' one's turn to shake ofl' the intruder, and 

 twice did he break the thin part of the line, and leave his 

 enemy dangling. At last, the latter gave up the attempt, 

 and went back to the centre of his own web, after carej'uUi/ 

 (ktac/iiiiff ereri/ oar of thf linen which Ids neighbour had 

 had the impudence to fasten to his long diagonal." 



