ANDIAL REPUTATION. 93 



what is simply in the one the necessary satiation of appetite 

 with suitable food is in the other unnecessary and dan- 

 gerous repletion with substances, solid and fluid, that too 

 frequently are not entitled to the appellation of ' food ' 

 at all. 



The useful oxen, our domestic cattle, do not get credit for 

 other psychical qualities than those that are virtually of a 

 negative or passive kind ; but what they may become under 

 proper training and kindly usage is, or was at one time, 

 illustrated by the condition and aptitudes of Hottentot oxen. 

 Whatever they may be now, they used to be trained to fight 

 for and to pay respect to man, to guard and defend his 

 flocks, so as to be employed instead of watch dogs; to under- 

 stand his signals and obey his commands; to distinguish, as 

 well as the different inhabitants of a kraal, friend or familiar 

 from foe or stranger, and to attack the latter (Watson). 



When we speak of a man being ' stubborn as a mule,' we 

 little think that this stubbornness, when it exists in the 

 animal, is usually the result, direct or indirect, of man's 

 injudicious or bad usage. Nor do we give the animal credit 

 for the sagacity or shrewdness, the vanity or pride, which it 

 possesses. Nevertheless it is humiliating to man's self- 

 esteem to consider how conspicuously the mule shows its 

 superior sagacity in certain circumstances. Many a traveller 

 in Alpine countries, if he has not himself been both stupid 

 and stubborn, has been thankful to trust himself implicitly 

 to his mule and its guidance in way-finding or way- 

 keeping on unknown or dangerous ground: Few animals 

 are more intelligent than the mule in the means whereby, 

 in Central America, they avoid being lassoed by their masters 

 (Wood). It is one of man's delusions regarding this 

 useful and frequently beautiful animal that, like its relative 

 the ass, it is of an humble or meek, all-suffering spirit. 

 In point of fact, however, the mule is ' a very proud animal 

 and fond of good society,' and in Central America it 

 shows both in its partiality to the horse and aversion to 

 the ass (Wood). Like many men, it apparently despises its 

 ' poor relation ' the donkey, while it glories in its kinship 

 with the horse. On the other hand, it is said that the vanity 



