I 3 2 
ORPHEUS AT THE ZOO 
some animals, such as the mountain sheep, the bears, 
and the wolves, they produced the strangest results — 
in the first two of pleasure, in the last of fear. But 
though the violin-player is master of many sounds, 
and can even imitate the drone of the bagpipe, which 
the cobras so much enjoyed, it still remained to make 
trial of our hearers with other sounds than those of 
the tuneful strings. Animals, like the Passions, might 
have their favourite instrument, if only it could be 
found, and Orpheus, with his lute, could be matched 
against the shepherd’s pipe, or could watch the 
emotion of his animal admirers while melancholy 
“ poured through the mellow horn her pensive soul.” 
Respect for the peaceful early hours at the Zoo in- 
duced us to forego, for the time, the trial of instruments 
of brass. But it was thought that the contrasts of 
the violin, the flute, and the shrill and piping piccolo, 
might afford some guide to animals’ taste in instru- 
mental music, without injury either to their own nerves, 
or to the comfort of visitors to the Gardens. The 
hour chosen was the earliest which the rules for 
securing the animals’ comfort allowed ; for the tests 
to be made were far more delicate than those by 
which we had proved the general susceptibility of 
animals to musical sound, and demanded the undivided 
attention of our captive hearers. The general order 
of our experiments, based upon the supposition that 
animal nerves are not unlike our own, was so arranged 
that their attention should be first arrested by a low 
and gradually-increasing volume of sound, in those 
