THE GREAT DOG-SUPERSTITION 287 
and in cities like London would bring us a thought 
of the alert life and eternal gladness of Nature. 
For those who would prefer a more terrestrial 
rodent, yet one more daintily fashioned than the 
rough-cast rabbit and guinea-pig, there are others. 
For a large animal the beautiful Patagonian 
- dolichotis, like no other mammalian in its form, 
double the size of the hare, and a docile pet when 
tamed; and for a small one the charming lagidium 
or Andean vizcacha, with rabbit-like ears, long tail, 
arched like a squirrel’s, the fur blue-grey in colour 
above, and beneath golden yellow. And _ the 
chinchilla, white and pale grey, with round leaf- 
like ears, and soft dove’s eyes—a rare and deli- 
cate creature. There is in this small mountain 
troglodyte something poetic, tender, flower-like— 
a mammalian edelweiss. Poor little hunted chin- 
chilla, did the Incas of old love you more than we 
do now, who love you only dead? For you were 
also of the great mountains, where Viracocha sat 
on his throne of snow, and the coming sun-god 
first touched your stony dwelling-places with rose 
and amber flame; and perhaps they regarded you 
as an animal sacred to the Immortals. If so, then 
you have indeed lost your friends, for we have no 
such fancies, and spare not. 
It is a great descent, in more senses than one, 
to the prairie marmot—from the mountain to the 
plain, and from the beautiful to the grotesque; 
yet this dweller on the flat earth, gross in form 
and drab in colour, is a great pleasure-giver. He 
