56 WILD TRAITS IN TAME ANIMALS. 



be owing to the frugivorous habits of our very 

 early progenitors, to whom the sight of red or 

 golden ripe fruit was naturally one of acute 

 pleasure. 



Another apposite illustration is the delight we 

 derive from all manner of contests of wits and 

 muscles, so that nearly all our games, from whist 

 to football, partake of the nature of strife for 

 the mastery. A game is, of course, a systematic 

 and recognised method of obtaining pleasure, 

 and if we take a survey of all the most popular 

 forms of recreation of this kind, we shall find 

 that none of them are free from the elements 

 of that struggle for supremacy which has been 

 a chief factor in the evolution of the human race, 

 especially throughout the ages of barbarism. 



Now, if arboreal man took delight in discover- 

 inCT and devourino- luscious and g-orofeous fruits, 

 and savage man in hunting for prey and in 

 fighting his rivals or the foes of his tribe — and 

 all these ancient habits leave an impress upon our 

 modern ways of seeking and showing pleasure — 

 we can see that the dog's manner of manifesting 

 pleasurable emotions may be traceable to certain 

 necessary accompaniments of remote wild habits 

 of self-maintenance. 



