Sight in Savages. 183 



to observe and infer, and his inferences, like those 

 of the savage, were sometimes wrong. 



The savage sight is no better than ours for the 

 simple reason that a better is not required. Nature 

 has given to him, as to all her creatures, only what 

 was necessary, and nothing for ostentation. Stand- 

 ing on the ground, his horizon is a limited one; 

 and the animals he preys on, if often sharper-eyed 

 and swifter than he, are without intelligence, and 

 thus things are made equal. He can see the rhea 

 as far as the rhea can see him ; and if he possessed 

 the eagle's far-seeing faculty it would be of no 

 advantage to him. The high-soaring eagle requires 

 to see very far, but the low-flying owl is near-sighted. 

 And so on through the whole animal world: each kind 

 has sight sufficient to find its food and escape from 

 its enemies, and nothing beyond. Animals that live 

 close to the surface have a very limited sight. 

 Moreover, other faculties may usurp the eye's place, 

 or develop so greatly as to make the eye of only 

 secondary importance as an organ of intelligence. 

 The snake offers a curious case. No other sense 

 seems to have developed in it, yet I take the snake 

 to be one of the nearest-sighted creatures in exist- 

 ence. From long observation of them I am con- 

 vinced that small snakes of very sluggish habits do 

 not see distinctly farther than from one to three 

 yards. But the sluggish snake is the champion faster 

 in the animal world, .and can afford to lie quiescent 

 until the wind of chance blows something eatable in 

 its way ; hence it does not require to see an object 



