UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN LANGUAGE. 353 



and so bamboozle or deceive on-lookers, or escape the obser- 

 vation of enemies or obstructives (' Percy Anecdotes '). All 

 performing animals execute their performances mainly in 

 obedience to man's signs or orders, whether open and public, 

 understood by the audience and spectators or secret and 

 intelligible only to the performers and their trainer. 



In some cases, however, in course of time there arises a 

 certain spontaneity of action in such performances ; for in- 

 stance, in the case of the beggar's dog that goes forth alone 

 in its master's service (Grenville Murray). Decoy elephants 

 obey a single word or sign from their keeper, including sig- 

 nals that are secret, in the sense that they are unobserved or 

 not understood by on-lookers (Watson). 



But words as well as signs may' be unintelligible to an 

 audience, and yet quite intelligible to and by a performing 

 animal and its master. For co-operation in theatrical and 

 other public performances the words of a foreign tongue are 

 sometimes quite as useful and quite as much employed as 

 non-vocal signs or signals of any kind. Hence the advan- 

 tage of a certain knowledge of foreign languages, especially 

 French and German, to certain horses and dogs and their 

 masters. 



Frost tells us that ' circus horses are always spoken to in 

 the ring in French;' and he mentions one so addressed by New- 

 some, the circus proprietor, that at once understood his words 

 and acted upon his verbal hints or suggestions for instance, 

 in the discovery of a hidden handkerchief. Again, smug- 

 glers' dogs on the frontiers of France and Germany require 

 to know, and do know, both French and German (Watson) 

 that is to say, they acquire linguistic knowledge comparable 

 to the kind and amount thereof that a tourist must get up 

 in order to the supply of his physical wants and the prose- 

 cution of his object travel. 



With or without words, sometimes simply from seeing 

 what man is doing, the dog and other animals arrive rapidly 

 at very correct conclusions as to his object or purpose, and 

 they co-operate, or make efforts at frustration, as a sense of 

 their own or of his interests may prompt. Sporting dogs un- 

 derstand their master's plan and purpose in shooting game, 



