CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 99 



creatures' instincts and perceptions are in their 

 native freshness, whereas ours are dulled by 

 centuries of artificial surroundings. At any 

 rate, I am convinced that they possess an acute 

 power of recognising sympathy, on the few 

 occasions when man shows any for them, and 

 that they entertain a profound, childlike be- 

 lief in his power to give and to take, to help, or 

 to destroy, as he pleases. We must, in fact, 

 seem to the beasts of the field something like 

 those implacable spirits, always dreadful, 

 always to be propitiated when possible, with 

 which our own far-off ancestors peopled their 

 woods and hills. Whenever the man-spirit 

 deigns to come down from his pedestal, for- 

 getting his superiority for a little while, and 

 approaching the humbler creation with that 

 mesmeric and infectious goodwill that the 

 animals are so quick to recognise, he finds him- 

 self arriving at an understanding of animals' 

 ways and thoughts that he would before have 

 deemed impossible. There is no need for him 

 to be a sentimentalist. Hiawatha, who knew 

 the heart of every wild thing, alternately 

 caressed and used his bow. I have gone 

 many a time into the jungle with my gun and, 

 on coming up with my intended victims, have 

 forgotten my errand, sitting openly among 

 them, delighting in their gambols and piecing 

 together such fragments of their conversation 

 as seemed intelligible. It is true that I re- 

 turned home empty-handed, but I was well 

 content that it should be so. 



" In the man with an inborn gift of ]sym- 



