154 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



related by Mr. Schillings. A row of colored cloths lay 

 before Hans. Beside them stood an army officer. Point- 

 ing to the latter's red coat Mr. Schillings asked the horse 

 to indicate, by means of tapping, the place in the row 

 where a piece of the same color lay. Hans tapped eight 

 times, but Mr. Schillings reprimanded him because the 

 red piece was, as a matter of fact, second in the row. 

 Upon a repetition of the test, Hans again tapped 8. (By 

 some, the facts are recounted as having been the other 

 way round; viz.: Hans tapped 2 instead of 8. This of 

 course would call for a different explanation.) It was 

 noticed that at the place which would be indicated by 

 eight taps there was not a red piece but a carmine colored 

 piece of cloth. A newspaper reports, somewhat vaguely, 

 a sixth case as follows : Hans was asked to spell the name 

 "Donhoff" and began correctly: "Do". Mr. von 

 Osten, who somehow began to think of another name, 

 " Dohna ", interrupted him and wished to correct him by 

 suggesting o instead of 6 (i. e., 2 taps instead of 3). 

 Hans, however, " continued to spell the entire word with 

 the greatest equanimity. He had not erred. A similar 

 experience is reported by Mr. H. von Tepper-Laski, the 

 well known hippologist. Although the details have 

 slipped from his memory, he reports that in the case in 

 question the correct answer was thrice refused by the 

 questioner who thought that the horse's answer was in- 

 correct. Hans, upon being severely reprimanded in a 

 loud and harsh tone of voice, turned about as if disgusted 

 with the injustice of the man and made straight for his 

 stall. — It is clear that in the cases described we are not 

 dealing with accidentally correct responses, for in nearly 

 every case the test was repeated a number of times and 

 the same responses were received each time. As a mat- 



