146 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



2+2 was 3 or he would answer questions given in imme- 

 diate succession as follows : " How many eyes have 

 you ? — 2. " How many ears ? " — <z. " How many tails ? " 

 — 2. These errors, as a matter of fact, evince neither 

 wit nor humor, but prove incontrovertibly that Hans had 

 not even mastered the fundamentals. 



Many of the errors baffle every charitable attempt at 

 interpretation. These gave the horse the reputation of 

 capriciousness and unreliability. If Hans designated the 

 tone " e " as the seventeenth, or " g " as the eleventh, or 

 when he called Friday the 35th day of the week or 

 believed 50 pfennige to be worth only 48, the cause for 

 these responses lay either in the insufficient degree of 

 tension on the part of the questioner (as in the first 

 three examples) or in the extravagant expenditure of the 

 same (as in the last case). If, therefore, the horse 

 at times would " hopelessly flounder " which would seem 

 to be indicated by tapping now with the right and now 

 with the left foot, then as a matter of fact, this form of 

 reaction came about as was described on page 61, with 

 this difference that there we had to do with voluntary 

 controlled movements on the part of the questioner, 

 whereas here, they are the result of an unsuitable degree 

 of tension which expressed itself in frequent and dis- 

 concerting jerks. Besides the answer 3, this so-called 

 floundering was the only reaction the average person 

 could obtain from the horse in the absence of Mr. von 

 Osten and Mr. Schillings. It would however occur 

 also in the case of these gentlemen and would be re- 

 ceived by them with resentment when in truth it was 

 Hans's greatest feat, for he showed his extremely keen 

 reaction upon every movement of the questioner. To 

 this group belong also the errors in the case of higher 



