334 Animal Life and hitelligence. 



restive and difficult to milk, that to keep them at all quiet 

 the herdsman has to give them a calf to lick meanwhile. 

 But for this device, not a single drop of milk can be obtained 

 from them. One day a Llama herdsman, who lived in the 

 same house as ourselves, came with a long dismal face to 

 announce that his cow had calved during the night, and 

 that, unfortunately, the calf was dying. It died in the 

 course of the day. The Llama forthwith skinned the poor 

 beast and stuffed it with hay. This proceeding surprised 

 us at first, for the Llama had by no means the air of a man 

 likely to give himself the luxury of a cabinet of natural 

 history. When the operation was completed, we found 

 that the hay-calf had neither feet nor head ; whereupon it 

 occurred to us that, after all, it was perhaps a pillow that 

 the Llama contemplated. We were in error, but the error 

 was not dissipated till the next morning, when our herds- 

 man went to milk his cow. Seeing him issue forth, the 

 pail in one hand and the hay-calf under the other arm, the 

 fancy occurred to us to follow him. His first proceeding 

 was to put the hay-calf down before the cow. He then 

 turned to milk the cow herself. The mamma at first 

 opened enormous eyes at her beloved infant ; by degrees 

 she stooped her head towards it, then smelt at it, sneezed 

 three or four times, and at last proceeded to lick it with 

 the most delightful tenderness. This spectacle grated 

 against our sensibilities ; it seemed to us that he who first 

 invented this parody upon one of the most touching 

 incidents in nature must have been a man without a heart. 

 A somewhat burlesque circumstance occurred one day to 

 modify the indignation with which this treachery inspired 

 us. By dint of caressing and licking her little calf, the 

 tender parent one fine morning unripped it. The hay 

 issued from within, and the cow, manifesting not the 

 slightest surprise nor agitation, proceeded tranquilly to 

 devour the unexpected provender." 



Are we surprised at the want of surprise on the part 

 of the cow ? Why should we be ? What knows she of 

 anatomy or of physiology ? If she could think at aU about 



