542 PEACTICAL JOKES. 



Such jokes take advantage of certain mental or moral pecu- 

 liarities, or individualities, of the animals he selects as the 

 subject of his experiments, the victims too frequently of his 

 cruelty. These mostly mental peculiarities include, for in- 

 stance, irritability, pugnacity, liability to fear and panic, 

 ignorance, unsuspiciousness, confidence, curiosity, greed, 

 love of alcohol or other articles of man's food or drink, or 

 known partiality to certain natural foods. But while fully 

 appreciating, and frequently taking undue advantage of such 

 mental qualities, man is too apt to overlook certain others, 

 and. his oversight leads him to be forgetful of the possible 

 results to himself, as well as to his animal dupes, of his ill- 

 timed pleasantries. 



Thus he gives his victims no credit for their memory of 

 injury, their sense of indignation at affront or abuse, the 

 keenness and the impetuosity of their passions, their thirst 

 for revenge, their power of selecting the proper means of 

 inflicting condign punishment for offence, their capacity to 

 impute blame where it is deserved, their patience in waiting 

 for, and their sagacity in seizing opportunity, their promp- 

 titude of action when the watched-for opportunity arrives. 



Hence the fatal injuries, of which we so frequently read, 

 inflicted by horses, elephants and dogs, or by various me- 

 nagerie animals, on those persons who have wilfully tor- 

 mented them. Thus we are told of a boy, killed outright 

 by an elephant, as the effect of teasing it (' Animal World'). 

 When men or boys give elephants stones instead of expected 

 nuts, unsuspiciousness or inexperience of man's treachery 

 may lead the sagacious animal into error for the moment. 

 But discovery of the deception is very speedy ; the animal's 

 anger or resentment is unmistakably exhibited ; and man's 

 stupidity for he may have erred but in thoughtlessness, 

 not in cruel intention has thus stimulated his victim to 

 revenge by murder. 



Man's pleasantries or practical jokes are at all times 

 liable to be misunderstood and resented, even by animals 

 that are familiar with the player of the joke. Though, as 

 has been already shown, certain animals can, and do dis- 

 tinguish between jest, joke, fun, frolic, pretence, and earnest, 



