198 THE HORSE OF MR. VON OSTEN 



I shaljL.now_ turn_to peculiarities o f character , highly 

 humanized, which have been attributed to Hans. His 

 " sympathies " and " antipathies ", so-called, were noth- 

 ing but erroneous appellations for the success or failure 

 on the part of the respective individuals to elicit responses. 

 He who could procure answers frequently, apparently 

 stood high in the horse's favor. That Hans shook his 

 head violently when asked by Mr. von Osten : " Do you 

 like Mr. Stumpf ? ", and answered in the affirmative the 

 further question: "Do you like Mr. Busch?", was noth- 

 ing but a confession — unwilling, to be sure — on the part 

 of the master himself. In the first case the master 

 thought " no ", in the second instance, " yes ", and the 



the Zoological Society for Westphalia and Lippe, and presumably 

 showed that " the horses of the military do not understand the bugle 

 calls." No matter how well trained a horse may have been, it would 

 not respond to a signal. This report, however, is due to a mistake. 

 Such experiments have never been made by the society mentioned, so I 

 am told by its director, Dr. Reeker. Nor do I know of any one else 

 who has made experiments of this kind. However, Professor Landois," 

 the eminent zoologist, now deceased (founder of the scientific society 

 mentioned), tested four circus-horses for their musical ability and spe- 

 cifically for their sense of musical time. He arrives at the conclusion that 

 horses "have no feeling for time, whatsoever." With but few ex- 

 ceptions,^'*' all experts to-day are of the same opinion. Horse-trainers, 

 especially, are universally agreed on this point. It is easy to see in any 

 circus performance that it is not the horses that accommodate them- 

 selves to the music, but that the music accommodates itself to them, 

 and that the trained horses*' are induced to do their artistic stepping 

 only by the aids given by their riders. Furthermore, all these horses are 



trained without the use of music. It would therefore appear that 



the time had arrived when the tales of the dancing horses of the Sybarites 

 ought no longer to gain credence. Two Greek writers, Athenaeus*' 

 and iElian,*' tell us that the inhabitants of Sybaris, far-famed for their 

 luxurious habits, had trained their horses to dance to the music of flutes 

 during their banquets. Kuilding upon this, the men of Crotona, in one 

 of their campaigns against the Sybarites, ordered the flute-players to 



