130 
PASsioi^AL zoohoar. 
ever, refuse a little gratitude to the ferret, and to say a good word 
for him on account of his obedience to man ; for the deference of 
the ferret for man is the more meritorious, as nothing forced him 
to solicit our alliance, which he could better than other beasts 
do without, and as he has lost more than he has gained by do- 
mestication. 
In fact the ferret is always athirst for blood — blood of pigeon 
— blood of rabbit — blood of fowl — he lives amid these species ; he 
hears them cooing, crowing, trotting around him all day, without 
breaking through the barrier which separates him from them. 
His life is but a long punishment like that of Tantalus ; and his 
master, as if to stimulate the ardor of his regrets and his desires, 
feeds him almost exclusively with milk-porridge. The lot of the 
marten and the beech marten in the woods and barns is incontest- 
ably happier. 
The domestication of the ferret is, in my opinion, one of the most 
glorious demonstrations of man’s legitimate pretensions to the ab- 
solute sovereignty of the globe, for it is the homage laid at his feet 
by one of the most ferocious tribes on the globe, and the most re- 
bellious to all authority. 
But when the series of felines (Lions, Tigers, etc.), and even 
that of the Serpents, were compelled by a superior will to ally 
themselves with man by means of their last links (the tame cat 
and house snake^'), it was impossible for the series of blood-drink- 
ers to remain out of the general law. It has then become hu- 
manized like the others, and it has detached the ferret to man’s 
service, in capacity of a rabbit ouster. I have often been told 
that the beech marten and the skunk, attracted by the example 
of the ferret, had sought to approach man. I should not be sur- 
prised. We are too much disposed to forget the services of beasts 
now that we have perfected fire-arms, which allow us to dispense 
somewhat with their assistance. It is then suitable that those who 
have preserved the remembrance of the miseries and difficulties 
^ In the East Indies there is a heantifnl little snake which the women wear 
as ornaments round their necks and wrists ; and in our Southern States is 
one called glass snake, because its tail will snap to pieces and the parts 
unite again when placed in apposition. 
