258 MATERIAL PROGRESS 



to realize what they mean to us. In India it is 

 not very long since a pedlar could attract a crowd 

 around him by striking a match. 



The domestication of animals was another long 

 step in material progress. We may believe that 

 this was a development from the keeping of pets, 

 to which man is naturally inclined by his instinct 

 of kindness. Some species of birds and quad- 

 rupeds are curiously distinguished by the readi- 

 ness with which they become tame ; owing, it 

 appears, to some weakness of directive instinct 

 they can contract artificial habits more easily 

 than other species to which they may be closely 

 related. The intelligent, playful docility of the 

 sea-lion is an extraordinary " sport " a gem 

 which lies hidden in the ocean. A little bird of 

 Ecuador the chiroka (Icterus grace-annae) in 

 a few weeks will become quite habituated to 

 man's society, and will be frightened by no 

 noise or sight that it has once harmlessly ex- 

 perienced. The American grey squirrel fearlessly 

 accosts passers-by in the parks, and there is a 

 large Indian squirrel which will in a few days 

 become astonishingly intimate with its captor. 

 The tameness of the Indian mongoose is well 

 known. But the docility of these animals is 

 exceptional. Most birds, even although born in 

 captivity, never lose their instinctive timidity ; 

 and such near relatives of the dog as the wolf and 

 the jungle dog of India are quite untameable. We 

 may suppose that the animals that have been 

 domesticated by man were distinguished, as pets, 

 by the facility with which they could acquire new 

 habits : this peculiarity of disposition inured 

 them to slavery, when it was perceived that they 

 could serve man as well as amuse him. In the 

 tropical regions that were man's first habitat, his 

 first essays in domestication would be with the 



