THE MUSQUASH. 169 



it, and tear their luckless comrade to pieces. This 

 mode of procedure is familiar to naturalists, as it is 

 shared by other animals. Rats, for example, always 

 devour a wounded comrade, and so do wolves. Several 

 ppecies of birds and insects also act in the same manner. 



At first sight, this modification of instinct seems to 

 be a cruel one, but, in reality, it is peculiarly merciful. 

 The injured creature must die, and it is certainly more 

 merciful to destroy it with a sudden and sharp pang, 

 perhaps scarcely so painful as that which it is already 

 enduring, than to allow it to die a lingering death of 

 hunger, thirst, exhaustion, and slow agony. 



The animals, in fact, do by instinct that very act 

 to which an American Indian, tied to the stake of 

 torture, tries to urge his foes. While being slowly 

 tortured to death by foes who exhaust all their treasures 

 of invention and tradition by sparing life as long as 

 possible while adding torture to torture, the captive 

 warrior loads his enemies with jeers and taunts, 

 endeavouring to goad their savage nature into dashing 

 out his brains in a fit of rage, and so ending his agony 

 and his life together. So, when crucifixion was an 

 acknowledged mode of punishment, the friends of the 

 criminal would try to find some mode of killing him 

 as he hung on the cross, instead of leaving him to 

 perish with sheer pain. 



So, in later days, when the wheel and the stake 

 were in vogue, the sufferer used always to attempt to 

 bribe his executioner into shortening his pangs in 

 the former case, by administering the " coup-de- 

 grace," or blow of mercy, as it was rightly called, as 

 soon as possible ; and in the latter, by providing dry 



