. STUPIDITY. 123 



('German Arctic Expedition 5 ), just as the peasants of a 

 remote country district in Britain itself gaze at some foreigner 

 whose dress, manners, and tongue are strange to, and there- 

 fore astonish, them. 



Prejevalsky speaks of * the stupidity and indecision of 

 the yak.' Of the chinchilla, Molina says its ' extraordinary 

 placidity of temper may possibly be due to its pusillanimity, 

 which renders it extremely timid.' The guanaco has no idea 

 of self-defence (Baird). They are even 'totally unable to 

 protect themselves when massed in the herd, becoming 

 ' quite bewildered if attacked simultaneously from all sides ' 

 (Darwin), circumstances under which man himself, however, 

 even when trained to arms, equally loses his presence of 

 mind. And this helplessness, as in so many other cases, is 

 duly taken advantage of by the astute hunter. Lamont 

 says that it is 'often curiosity, or the paralysis and confusion 

 of fear ' in the walrus that leads it to allow itself unresist- 

 ingly to be shot. 



Belt thus comments on the stupidity of certain Nicara- 

 guan deer. ' It is astonishing that the deer should be so 

 little afraid of man as they are, after having been objects of 

 chase for probably thousands of years. Sometimes, when 

 one is encountered in the forest, it will stand within twenty 

 yards stupidly gazing at a man .... waiting long enough 

 for an unloaded gun to be charged.' In the very opposite 

 climate of the arctic regions, and under the very opposite cir- 

 cumstances of seldom or never before having been objects of 

 the chase, ' at the first shot a herd of approaching reindeer 

 will make a spring and then stand terrified The rein- 

 deer approaches (the hunter) at a brisk trot, full of curiosity, 

 to within a few steps. Indeed, sometimes they come quite 

 close to him.' 



Another timid arctic animal behaves in a curiously un- 

 concerned way in the presence of his strange visitor man. 

 The Greenland hare 'sits as if nailed down in its rocky 



refuge, however near the hunter may pass to him 



Payer once stood near a hare which was startled by re- 

 peated firing, but had confined its flight to a few steps . . . 

 nibbling the moss quietly.' According to Dr. Copeland, of 



/^ 



V r, r* 



