IN OTHEK ANIMALS. 229 



those on 'Crime' and ' Punishment.' And among the means 

 whereby it endeavours to atone or propitiate is the making 

 of offerings to the person offended or supposed to be offended. 

 To us these peace offerings may appear at first sight to be of 

 a very trivial or absurd kind, as when a cat offers a captured 

 mouse or rat, dead or living, to its master. But, in judging 

 of the action and its motive, we must bear in mind that in 

 such a case the article offered is that which is of the highest 

 mine in the eyes of the offerer; and as much as this cannot 

 certainly be said of the propitiatory offerings, religious or 

 otherwise, of man. 



When the dog has succeeded in reinstating itself in 

 favour, when its offering has been received in the spirit in 

 which it was made when, in short, it is successful in its 

 efforts at re-establishing amicable relations with the being 

 whose slightest love it so highly values the animal's delight 

 is unequivocally expressed; while, under opposite circum- 

 stances, there is corresponding depression, despondency, or 

 despair, all the shades of grief or sorrow, leading even to 

 fatal pining for the affection that is refused or withheld. 



Dogs not only worship man, but they attend worship with 

 him take part so far in his religious observances. In doing 

 so the following points are to be specially noted : 



1. The appropriateness of their behaviour to the place 

 and time, varying in the case of the dogs of Protestant 

 and Catholic masters attending Protestant or Catholic 

 churches or chapels ; and 



2. The correct perception of time and locality a sub- 

 ject, however, that falls more appropriately to be treated of 

 in another chapter. 



Church attendance by dogs is, and has long been, a 

 common phenomenon in the pastoral districts of Scotland. 

 Scotch shepherds, both in Highlands and Lowlands, are a 

 devout, church-attending race ; and, so far at least as con- 

 cerns regularity of attendance upon the ordinances of 

 worship, and demure, decorous behaviour thereat, their 

 dogs, or c collies,' are equally devout. These Scotch collies 

 frequently have particular seats or pews or at least their 

 equivalents, lairs or couching-places in church ; and there. 



