Chapt. v. Other speaking acquaintances. 65 



less? I will be bound there is not so much nonsense 

 in it as in half the stuff talked to babies by nurses and 

 mothers; about blessing their little tootsi-wootsies and 

 so forth. Let one of the herd see a crocodile where they 

 are about to drink, or a panther, or any thing that a- 

 larms them, and only listen to the jabbering caught up 

 and carried on by all. Do you say it is all gibberish? 

 It is intelligible enough to them, and all with one con- 

 sent take precautions accordingly. They do not run 

 wildly hither and thither, as if overcome by an uncertain 

 fear, but they have a clear idea of what is the matter, 

 and what they ought to do under the circumstances. The 

 state of affairs has been intelligently communicated. 



Try again. Strike gently, so as not to cow, or threaten 

 to strike, that captive monkey, and see if he does not face 

 r6und, and give you a bit of his mind at once. He com- 

 mences talking nineteen to the dozen, and though you 

 cannot understand him he means a lot. It is very evi- 

 dent from his demeanour he does. 



I have often thought it a very good thing we do not 

 know all that quarrelsome dogs say to each other, for 

 there must be some frightfully bad language used some- 

 times. The very style of their growling is a caution. 

 But they can talk civil talk to each other also. I had a 

 fine heavy dog, half fox-hound, half Cuban blood-hound, 

 which had an excellent nose. He came on the scent of 

 antelope, and followed it up till it was warm, and he 

 could make it out. Knowing from sad experience that 

 he was much too portly to catch an antelope himself, he 



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