DIFFERENT USES OF THE DOG. 453 



the dog and the man hunted together ; the cunning of. the 

 one supplemented the speed of the other, and they shared 

 the produce of their joint exertions. Gradually mind as- 

 serted its pre-eminence over matter, and the man became 

 master. Then the dog was employed in other ways, less 

 congenial to his nature. The Esquimaux forced him to draw 

 the sledge ; the Chinook kept him for the sake of his wool ; 

 the South Sea Islanders, having no game, bred the dog for 

 food ; the Chonos Indians taught him to fish ; where tribes 

 became shepherds, their dogs became shepherds also ; finally, 

 it is recorded by Pliny that in ancient times troops of dogs 

 were trained to serve in war. Even the ox, though less 

 versatile than the dog, has been used for the first and the 

 two last of these purposes. 



Again, in obtaining fire, two totally different methods are 

 followed ; some savages, as for instance the Fuegians, using 

 percussion, while others, as the South Sea Islanders, rub one 

 piece of wood against another. Opinions are divided whether 

 we have any trustworthy record of a people without the 

 means of obtaining fire. It has been already mentioned 

 (p. 355) that, according to Mr. Dove, the Tasmanians, 

 though acquainted with fire, did not know how to obtain it. 

 In his history of the Ladrone Islands, Father Gobien asserts 

 that fire, " an element of such universal use, was utterly un- 

 known to them, till Magellan, provoked by their repeated 

 thefts, burned one of their villages. When they saw their 

 wooden houses blazing, they first thought the fire a beast 

 which fed upon wood, and some of them, who came too near, 

 being burnt, the rest stood afar off, lest they should be de- 

 voured, or poisoned, by the violent breathings of this terrible 

 animal." This fact is not mentioned in the original account 

 of Magellan's Voyage. Freycinet believes that the assertion of 

 Father Gobien is entirely without foundation. The language, 

 he says, of the inhabitants contains words for fire, burning, 



