684 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



At Lidge they live in my office. They usually keep in their 

 cage, where there are also rags. When the sun is shining, they 

 come out and scramble among the books or over me. The Span- 

 iard looks at me when I am writing. They run over my person, 

 hide in my clothes ; and one day last year I had so completely 

 forgotten them that I went out to deliver my lecture with my two 

 animals on my back. I perceived them after I had been some 

 time on the lecture stand, and was in mortal terror during the 

 rest of the lesson, lest they might take a notion to perform their 

 untimely and undignified gambols. 



As my children, too, are fond of playing with them, they are 

 always under observation. My articles have given them a Euro- 

 pean reputation. M. Tarde, the eminent sociologist and crimi- 

 nalogist, passed eight days with them. M. Forel, the celebrated 

 student of ants, found them after a few days as interesting as his 

 ants. They were intimate with a learned English psychologist, 

 M. Waller, and his wife, and had the honor of being presented to 

 eminent physiologists like M. Morat and great poets like M. Jean 

 Aicond. They have even been invited into society and caressed 

 by beautiful and noble ladies, whom they conquered by the grace 

 of their motions and the beauty of their dress. Thus they have 

 acquired gentle manners and are in safe and agreeable relations. 

 Man inspires no fear in them, and they play indiscriminately with 

 all visitors who encourage their familiarities. 



When they play in the light and make turns in their gymna- 

 sium, going out, re-entering, putting their noses against the win- 

 dow, turning their pretty heads, or flattening their backs in the 

 sun so as to receive more of its rays, they really present a charm- 

 ing spectacle ; and I think, not without a shade of sadness, how 

 nearly some countries would resemble a terrestrial paradise if 

 man, instead of making himself the terror of everything living, 

 would become its protector and friend. 



All my lizards but one come at my call, whistle, snapping of 

 the thumb, or psitt, to take flour worms or dates. They know 

 where their larder is. When we go to the worm keg, they divine 

 what it means, and are all on the alert, manifesting their expec- 

 tation with unequivocal signs. The Spaniard, at first the most 

 savage and stupid, became the most familiar and apparently on 

 the best understanding. Not only was he not afraid of being 

 taken, but he seemed to find pleasure in it, and suffered himself to 

 be caressed for hours without giving a sign of weariness. He 

 liked to be scratched under the jaw, however roughly. 



The story of the way this transformation from wild to gentle 

 was brought about is long but suggestive. MM. Sabbatier and 

 Robert, of Montpellier, and M. Tarde had promised to send me 

 ocellated lizards, but had not been able to fulfill their promise. 



