The Modern Theory of Instinct 365 



the desnucador of the pampas hght upon the 

 idea of plunging a knife into the seat of the 

 marrow, in order to produce the sudden death 

 of a colossus which would never suffer its throat 

 to be cut without first offering a dangerous re- 

 sistance ? Outside those in the trade and men 

 of science, nobody knows or suspects the light- 

 ning result of that particular wound ; we are 

 almost all in the same state of ignorance on this 

 subject in which I myself was when my childish 

 curiosity drew me into the killing-shed. The 

 desnucador and the butcher have learnt their 

 craft from the teachings of tradition and 

 example : they have had masters ; and these 

 were brought up in the school of other masters, 

 harking back by a chain of linked traditions 

 to him who, served, no doubt, by some hazard 

 of the chase, first realized the tremendous effects 

 of a wound in the nape of the neck. Who 

 shall tell us that a pointed flint-stone, driven 

 by accident into the spinal marrow of the 

 Reindeer or the Mammoth, did not rouse the 

 attention of the desnucador s forerunner ? A 

 casual incident furnished the original idea ; 

 observation confirmed it ; reflection matured 

 it ; tradition preserved it ; example dissemi- 

 nated it. After that, the same transmis- 

 sion-current. For generation might follow 

 generation in vain : deprived of masters, the 



