The Strange Instincts of Cattle, 345 
one of tlie cows that had got wedged between two 
rocks and was struggling with distressed bellowings 
to free itself — why did they not attack the prisoning 
rocks instead of goring their unfortunate comrade to 
death? For it is well known that animals will; on 
occasions; turn angrily upon and attack inanimate 
objects that cause them injury or hinder their freedom 
of action. And we know that this mythic faculty — the 
mind’s projection of itself into visible nature — sur- 
vives in ourselves, that there are exceptional moments 
in our lives when it comes back to us ; no one, for 
instance, would be astonished to hear that any man, 
even a philosopher, had angrily kicked away or 
imprecated a stool or other inanimate object against 
which he had accidentally barked his shins. The 
answer is, that there is no connection between these 
two things — the universal mythic faculty of the 
mind, and that bold and violent instinct of social 
animals of rushing to the rescue of a stricken or 
distressed companion, which has a definite, a narrow, 
purpose — namely, to fall upon an enemy endowed 
not merely with the life and intelligence common to 
all things, including rocks, trees, and waters, but 
with animal form and motion. 
I had intended in this place to give other in- 
stances, observed in several widely-separated species, 
including monkeys ; but it is not necessary, as I 
consider that all the facts, however varied, are 
covered by the theory I have suggested — even a fact 
like the one mentioned in this chapter of cattle 
bellowing and madly digging up the ground where 
the blood of one of their kind had been spilt : 
also such a fact as that of wild cattle and other 
