GENEEAL TREATMENT. 325 



on the lower animals : he prefers them to his brother man 

 in nnmerous instances in which he gives precedence to 



1. The objects of his superstition, as in India ; or to 



2. The instruments of his pleasures or profits his race- 

 horses or sporting dogs 



on whose dwellings, food, and drink, training and persons, 

 he sometimes lavishes an amount of care and money that 

 he never dreams of spending upon his fellow- man. Many a 

 'highly respected' wealthy landowner places his horses and 

 dogs, his poultry, pigs, and game, before his labourers, treat- 

 ing the latter as if they were in reality the 'lower/ and 

 the others the higher, animals. The stables and kennels, 

 pens and preserves, of the one are, beyond any proper com- 

 parison, excellent in contrast with the ruinous hovels of the 

 other. 



Man's superstitions often lead to too great licence, to the 

 mischievousness of certain species of monkeys for instance, 

 and to the increase of certain kinds of noxious insect-vermin 

 in the animal temples or refuges of India the one being 

 permitted to go unpunished, the other not being empha- 

 tically * stamped out ' as a nuisance to man. It is super- 

 stition, too, that leads, or has led, to all the absurdities 

 connected with the deification of animals in all times and in 

 all countries. 



The same kind of superstitious feeling, however, which 

 gives rise to the deification of real or imaginary animals is 

 frequently beneficent in its tendency, if not in its actual 

 operation, leading, for instance, to the public or general 

 protection of animals that are useful to man, or ornamental 

 to his dwellings or their surroundings, or that are both. 

 This kind of protection, which may be careful and deliberate 

 as illustrated by the provision of shelter, food, nests, or 

 nesting-places or which may amount to simple immunity 

 from torment, irritation, or provocation, gives rise in the 

 animals in question to perfect fearlessness of, and confidence 

 in, man ; they obviously regard him as a friend and not an 

 enemy, as animals in general have too much and too good 

 reason to do. 



Thus in Holland or other countries where the white stork 



