EDFCATED HOGS. 151 



* 



Goats may be taught many tricks heretofore described. It is 

 best to commence their instruction when they are quite young, as 

 when older they are apt to develop an obstinate disposition, be- 

 sides not being so apt pupils as when young. Goats not being- 

 very fastidious as to what they eat — asparagus or brown paper 

 being devoured with about the same apparent relish — almost 

 anything in the shape of fruit, vegetables, or bread, will do as 

 a reward for good conduct. Harshness seems only to arouse 

 their obstinacy or increase their stupidity, and we doubt whether 

 it ever does any good. If we did not really believe severity 

 would only defeat the aims of the trainer, we should almost be 

 tempted to leave goats to take their own chances for kind 

 treatment ; for ever since a venerable specimen of the ani- 

 mal butted us, in our youth, down a steep bank, merely be- 

 cause in stooping to pick up something, we furnished a tempta- 

 tion too strong for him to resist, we have felt an unconquerable 

 prejudice against the whole tribe. But after all the trainer 

 will ■ find bribes better than blows. 



Many of the common tricks taught horses and dogs can be 

 taught goats. As we have fully described the methods of 

 teaching those animals it would be merely repetition to give 

 minute details here ; the method is substantially the same with 

 goats as with horses or dogs, for the same tricks. 



The Hindoo jugglers use the goat in dexterous feats of balanc- 

 ing. The sure-footedness of the animal enables him to stand 

 on the end of a section of bamboo cane whose surface barely 

 affords room for his four feet. Sometimes this stick is placed 

 upright, the lower end being secured in the ground. At other 

 times the bamboo stick, with the goat standing on its end, is 

 balanced on the hand, chin or nose of the juggler. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



EDUCATED HOGS AND THEIR TRAINING. 



HOGS are not very intellectual animals, but, fortunately 

 for the trainer, what they lack in intelligence is made up 

 in appetite, and by 'appealing to their stomachs their education 

 is accomplished. " Learned pigs " and " educated hogs " are 

 more common in England than in this country, thoiip bV proba- 

 bly, like the opera, they will in time become an acclimated 



