HARE. 
26*9 
other wild animals, they persecute one of their own 
species that is sick,) and by constant care, and try- 
ing him with a variety of herbs, restored him to 
perfect health. No creature could be more grateful 
than my patient for his recovery; a sentiment which 
he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, 
first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger 
separately, then between all the fingers, as if anxious 
to leave no part of it unsaluted ; a ceremony which 
he never performed but once again upon a similar 
occasion. Finding him extremely tractable, I made 
it my custom to carry him always after breakfast 
into the garden, where he liid himself generally 
under the leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping or 
chewing the cud till evening ; in the leaves also of 
that vine he found a favourite repast. I had not 
long habituated him to this taste of liberty, before 
he began to be impatient for the return of the time 
when he might enjoy it. He would invite me to 
the garden by drumming upon my knee, and by a 
look of such expression as it was not possible to 
misinterpret. If this rhetoric did not immediately 
succeed, he would take the skirt of my coat between 
his teeth, and pull at it with all his force. Thus 
puss might be said to be perfectly tamed ; the shy- 
ness of his nature was done away; and on the whole 
it was visible by many symptoms, which I have not 
room to enumerate, that he was happier in human 
society than when shut up with his natural com- 
panions.” 
The other hares were less gentle, and upon one 
