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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that it would at once remove all social dis- 

 tinctions or polish intellectual pewter into 

 sterling silver. They have confined them- 

 selves to a modest trust that it may do some- 

 thing. It has done something already, and 

 they humbly believe it will do more. Time 

 is needed to measure the consequences of so 

 great a social change. The new leaven has 

 been spread among large classes of the na- 

 tion hardly touched by it until yesterday. As 

 one great benefit it has rendered the com- 

 petitive system possible in the public service, 

 and has saved the country from the evils of 

 nepotism, and from the worse evils of a po- 

 litical scramble for the spoils. But compe- 

 tition is not a good thing in itself — only a 

 " sad necessity." " The cultivation for mar- 

 ket purposes of brute brain power " may, in- 

 deed, have its uses. It probably saves a large 

 number of fairly able men from their innate 

 inclination to sheer idleness, and it probably 

 provides the public services with a regular 

 supply of fairly competent recruits. But it 

 can never, except by accident, breed a com- 

 petent scholar. Its direct tendency is to di- 

 vert the thoughts of those engaged in it from 

 all that the real lover of learning and litera- 

 ture seeks with a constant love. But even 

 the diffusion of "mediocre culture" gives the 

 average masses a better chance of fulfilling 

 their vocation than did the reign of general 

 ignorance that prevailed among them not 

 many years ago. 



Paradoxes of Animal Conrage. — Having 

 mentioned a supposed hostility of wild dogs 

 against tigers, a writer in the London Spec- 

 tator goes on to remark that the fierceness of 

 the wild dogs' attack seems to have affected 

 the tiger — a clever and " reflecting " animal 

 — with a kind of nervousness which extends 

 to all dogs ; and enforces his remark with 

 the story of a tiger which ran away from the 

 bark and spring of a domestic spaniel. " It 

 is, of course, just possible that the tiger was 

 ' nervous,' and that the little dog merely ex- 

 hibited the impudence habitual to little dogs 

 who know that they can worry a horse or a 

 bullock into beating a retreat when quietly 

 lying down in a field. Extreme nervousness 

 is often the accompaniment of great courage 

 in certain animals, especially of the larger 

 kinds. Indian rhinoceroses, kept by a rajah 

 for fighting in the arena, where they could 



exhibit the most obstinate courage in com- 

 bats with elephant or buffalo, would tremble 

 and lie down at the unusual sight of a horse 

 outside their pen ; and the elephant is more 

 liable to sudden panics and alarms than any 

 other animal. It is strange to think of the 

 same animal advancing boldly to face a 

 wounded tiger and receiving its charge upon 

 its tusks, and running away in uncontrollable 

 panic from a piece of newspaper blown across 

 the road. It is said that the scent or roar of 

 a bear in the jungle will often scare elephants 

 beyond control ; and they have the same in- 

 tense nervousness shown by the horse at the 

 sight of things unusual or out of place. A 

 big elephant which was employed to drag 

 away the carcass of a dead bullock, and had 

 allowed the burden to be attached by ropes 

 without observing what it was, happened to 

 look round, and instantly bolted, its fright 

 increasing every moment as the unknown ob- 

 ject jumped and bumped at its heels. After 

 running some miles, like a dog with a tin can 

 tied to its tail, the elephant stopped and al- 

 lowed itself to be turned round, and drew the 

 bullock back again without protest. Yet an 

 elephant, with a good mahout, gives, perhaps, 

 the best instance of disciplined courage — 

 courage, that is, which persists, in the face 

 of knowledge and disinclination — to be seen 

 in the animal world." 



A Whipping Game. — The whipping game 

 of the Arawacks of British Guiana, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. E. F. Im Thurn, is played by 

 any number of persons, but generally only by 

 men and boys, for one, two, or three days and 

 nights — as long, that is, as the supply of pai- 

 wari, the native beer, holds out. The play- 

 ers, with but brief intervals, range themselves 

 in two lines opposite each other. Every now 

 and then a pair of players, one from each line, 

 separate from the rest. One of these puts 

 forward his leg and stands firm ; the other 

 carefully measures the most effective distance 

 with a powerful and special whip with which 

 each player is provided, and then lashes with 

 all his force the cab? of the other. The crack 

 is like a pistol shot, and the result is a gash 

 across the skin of the patient's calf. Some- 

 times a second similar blow is given and 

 borne. Next the position of the pair of play- 

 ers is reversed, and the flogged man flogs the 

 other. Then the pair retire, drink good-tem- 



