Appendix, 
388 
It is plain to all who observe their actions that the lower 
animals have no comprehension of death. In the case of two 
animals that are accustomed to play or to he much together, 
if one dies, or is killed, and its body left, the other will come 
to sniff at, touch, and at last try to rouse it ; but finding all 
attempts vain, it will at length go away to seek companion- 
ship elsewhere. In cases where the attachment is much 
stronger, the dead body may be watched over for an indefinite 
period. A brother of mine once related to me a very pathetic 
incident which occurred at an estancia on the pampas where 
he was staying. A large portion of the land was a low, level, 
marshy plain, partly overgrown with reeds and rushes ; and 
one day, in this wilderness, a little boy of eight or nine, 
from the estancia, lost himself. A small dog, his invariable 
attendant, had gone out with him, but did not return. 
Seven days later the poor boy was found, at a great distance 
from the house, lying on the grass, where he had died of ex- 
haustion. The dog was lying coiled up at his side, and 
appeared to be sleeping ; but, when spoken to, he did not 
stir, and was presently found to be dead too. The dog could 
have gone back at any moment to the estancia, but his 
instinct of attachment overcame all others ; he kept guard 
over his little master, who slept so soundly and so long, until 
he, too, slept in the same way. 
A still more remarkable case of this kind was given in one 
of my books, of a gaucho, accompanied by his dog, who was 
chased and overtaken by a troop of soldiers during one of 
the civil wars in Uruguay. Suspecting him of being a spy, 
or, at all events, an enemy, his captors cut his throat, then 
rode away, calling to the dog to follow them ; but the animal 
refused to leave his dead master’s side. Eeturning to the 
spot a few days later, they saw the body of the man they 
had killed surrounded by a large number of vultures, which 
the dog, in a frenzy of excitement, was occupied in keeping 
at a respectable distance. It was observed that the dog, 
after making one of his sallies, driving the birds away with 
furious barking’s, would set out at a run to a small stream 
