104: THE ART OF TEAIKING AKIMALS, 



a game of dominoes, for the game consists merely in matching 

 certain pieces. 



Muiiito, the dog to whom reference is made in a preceding 

 page, was a French poodle, \Gvy handsome, with a fine silky, 

 white, woolly coat, half shaved. A gentleman who saw him 

 exhibited in Ticcadilly, London, nearly fifty years ago, thus 

 describes his performance, disclosmg at the same time the se- 

 crets thereof: 



" He performed many eurions feats, * answering questions, 

 telling the hour of the day, the day of the week, or date of the 

 month, and picking out any cards called for from a pack spread 

 on the ground. At the corner of the room was a screen, behind 

 which the dog and his master disappeared between each feat for 

 a sbort time. We watched him narrowly 5 but it was not until 

 after our second yisit that the mystery was solved. There 

 were packs of ordinary cards, and other cards with figures, and 

 others with single letters. One of the spectators was requested 

 to name a card — say the queen of clubs — the pack "was spread 

 on the fl^oor in a circle, faces upward. Munito went around the 

 cu'cle, came to the queen of clubs, pounced upon it, and brought 

 it in his mouth to his master. The same process was rej eated 

 with the cards with figures, when he brought the exact num- 

 bers which answered the questions put as to dates, or days, or 

 hours ; in the same way with the letter cards, when he picked 

 out the necessary letters to spell any short word called for, al- 

 ways making a full circle of the whole of the cards for each let- 

 ter, or for each number, and never taking up two letters or two 

 numbers consecutively, though they might chance to lie close 

 together. This fact we made out at the first visit, but nothing 

 more. On the second occasion we watched more narrowly, and 

 with that object took a side seat, so that we had a partial view 

 behind the screen. We then noticed that between each feat the 

 master gave the dog some small bits of some sort of food, and. 

 that there was a faint smell of aniseed from that corner of the 

 room. We noticed that the dog, as he passed around the circle 

 of cards, with his nose down, and his eyes directed to the ground, 

 never pounced on the right card as his eyes covered it, but 

 turned back and picked it out. It was clear that he chose it by 

 the smell, and not by the sense of sight. We recalled that, each 

 time before the dog began his cipcuit, the master arranged and 

 settled the cards, and we then found that he pressed the fleshy 

 part of his thumb on the particular card the dog was to draw, 

 which thumb he previously put into his waistcoat pocket for an 

 instant ; and as he passed close to us, his waistcoat had an ani- 

 seed scent." 



