In my last paper on the taming of animals, I treated the subject
generally rather than in detail. It is probable that the curious reader
may not be displeased to learn a little more of the mode of keeping and
domesticating wild and savage animals, as well as the methods to be
adopted in order to bring together fierce animals of different species,
and induce them to occupy the same cage in peace and harmony, and without
danger of contention. It is, as will be at once recognised, this latter
circumstance which renders the exhibitions of Van Amburgh and his rivals
as wonderful as they are; it being a far easier matter to reconcile a
lion or a tiger to yourself, and even familiarize it to the furthest
possible degree, than it is to induce the tiger and the lion to consort
together, and refrain from engaging in deadly conflict.
Let us suppose, for the sake of illustration of the mode which should be
adopted to tame two or more animals, that you are made a present of a
lion and a tiger. If the animals be very young, you will have very little
trouble with them for a long time--none, indeed, beyond the necessity of
attending to their health, for the larger felines are difficult to be
reared; but as they grow older, they will be very apt to quarrel between
themselves; wounds will be given and received, and the death or maiming
of either, or perhaps of both, will pretty speedily result. To guard
against any unpleasantness of this nature, it should be your business
the instant you receive the animals to commence operations. Let them be
kept at first far apart; for it is not advisable, as their dispositions
may be very different, that one should be witness of the severity you may
be compelled to exercise towards the other. This done, take, according
to the animals’ ages, a stout cane, a supplejack, or an iron rod. If the
creatures be very young, that is, under three months, or perhaps four,
the cane will be sufficient. If greater, or from that to half grown, you
will require the supplejack, and let it be thicker at one end than at the
other. For a half-grown animal the iron rod will be absolutely necessary,
and it must be of sufficient weight that a blow of it on the skull may be
sufficient to produce a temporary insensibility--the only chance you will
have of escape, should the fierce brutes at any time take it into their
heads to rebel.
Having thus provided yourself with arms offensive, you must be equally
cautious as to your costume. That must be of strong material, hard, and
fitting close. You must have no loose flapping skirts, no open jackets.
All must be tight, and buttoned closely to the body. An under-waistcoat
(sleeved) of strong buff, with a stout pea-jacket over it, leather
or corduroy breeches, and top boots, is about the best dress for the
experimentalist in animal taming that I can suggest at this moment. The
reason--for I like to give a reason for everything I recommend--of this
necessity for a firm, tight-fitting dress, is, that if a wild animal,
although to all appearance perfectly domesticated, chances even in play
to get his claws fastened in your clothes, the sensation of seizing upon
prey involuntarily presents itself to his imagination. The accidental
entanglement is succeeded by a plunge of the claws, the jaws are brought
into requisition, and your life is by no means in a safe position. Hence
the necessity for tight dress.
Thus accoutred, with your rod in your hand, and, if the animal be more
than half grown, a brace of pistols in your breast--the one loaded with
ball, the other with powder, upon which a quantity of tow has been
crammed down--approach the cage of the young animal which you design to
tame. I commence with this stage of the process, because I presume that
you have already rendered your protegé sufficiently familiar by feeding
and caressing it through the bars, and by spending some time each day in
its company. I presume therefore that it has already begun to recognise
your appearance, and to come over to your hand when called, as well as to
permit you to stroke and pat it, without attempting to bite you. Approach
the cage, hold in your left hand a heavy cloak or blanket wrapped round
your hand and arm; let there be two assistants near at hand, and a small
stove in which half a dozen iron rods are heating; let the door of the
cage be a real door, opening upon hinges, and shutting with a good and
deeply-notched latch--not a sliding door, as such a mode of entering
the cage might be as much as your life was worth. Speak kindly to the
animal, and caress it through the bars of its cage ere you enter, or the
suddenness of your entrance may irritate or alarm it, and thus induce it
to attack you. Your costume should likewise by no means have been put on
for the first time. You should have dressed in a similar manner during
all your former visits, so that your intended pet might be acquainted
with your appearance. Let a platform be erected outside the cage, to its
level, and ascend this, where stand a few minutes, boldly caressing and
speaking to the animal. Then throw open the door, enter with a firm and
resolute step, push the door behind you, but see that you do not for an
instant remove your eyes from those of the animal you are visiting. Do
not advance from the door; stand near the bars of the cage, that you may
have a better chance of escape, and may be more readily assisted by your
attendants in the event of an attack. Speak kindly towards the animal,
and if it, as it most likely will, comes over to you, fear nothing, but
stretch forth your hand and caress it. The creature will then probably
purr, and rub against you. Permit it to do so, and encourage it in its
familiarity; but if it offer to play with you, repress such disposition
with firmness; and if you perceive that the animal is bent on frolic,
leave the cage at once, for it is unsafe longer to remain, the play of
these savage creatures always leading to mischief, just as the cat sports
with the captured mouse ere she gives it the finishing blow, and buries
it in her maw. Repress, therefore, every attempt to play. Use your rod
freely and severely. Do so not merely for a grievous fault, but for
the most distant appearance of insubordination. Let your corrections
be terrible when you do inflict them, and you will have to repeat them
so much the less frequently. Some, and Van Amburgh I believe among the
rest, are in favour of beating the animals every morning, whether they
deserve such chastisement or not, just by way of keeping up a salutary
awe of their masters. I object to this, as I conceive it to be both cruel
and unnecessary. If animals are of an unruly disposition, and require
frequent correction, I should rather recommend that they should be
visited every morning, and an opportunity of misbehaving themselves thus
afforded, when indeed a good thrashing might be administered with much
greater justice. Never display either timidity or ill-humour. The former
will make the animals despise your menaces, and perhaps give you a bite
or a claw--the latter will cause them to hate you, to regard you as a
tyrant, and probably seize on the first favourable opportunity for your
destruction. Be just, therefore, in your punishments, and do not be too
familiar. Never for an instant permit any animal to make too free with
you. Recollect the old copybook adage, “Familiarity breeds contempt;”
and recollect that if a young lion or a tiger so far forgets himself as
to despise your authority, you will stand a fair chance of being torn to
pieces some fine morning, and devoured for their breakfast.
I conceive that the preceding rapidly sketched hints will serve as a
sufficient ground-work for the animal-tamer to act upon. He must not be
discouraged if he do not succeed at first, and he must be satisfied to
take time, and persevere. Without this he need not hope for success.
The animal-tamer must be fearless--such a thing as terror must be a
feeling wholly foreign to his soul. He must be as brave as a lion: for
how can he otherwise hope to subdue the bravest of the animal creation?
I have said “bravest,” and so let the word stand; but I was perhaps led
to employ the expression rather from popular prejudice, than from a
conviction of its truth. The feline tribes are very powerful and very
fierce animals, but they are by no means brave. A bulldog has more
courage in his pigmy body, than exists in the prodigious carcasses or
a dozen lions or tigers. Let the animal-tamer recollect this, and the
knowledge of this fact will probably encourage him. To give a case in
point:--I was once endeavouring to make friends with the tigress in
the Zoological Gardens, Phœnix Park--a beautiful animal, subsequently
purchased from the Zoological Society by the proprietors of the
Portobello Gardens, and since unfortunately dead. I had got so far as
to be able to stroke the creature on the head and back, and even to open
her mouth with my hand, and leave it within her terrible jaws. This I did
on my third visit to her, in presence of the animal’s keeper. One day I
was alone with the tigress, and my hand was upon her neck: she with equal
good nature had placed her enormous paw upon my shoulder, and was purring
in a most affectionate manner, when a sudden noise from one of the other
animals caused me to start; instantly the paw was brought down upon my
arm with some violence, and before I could extricate my hand, Kate, as
the tigress was called, had closed her teeth upon the limb, which she
held firmly, though as yet uninjured. I strove to withdraw my hand, but
to no purpose. I felt in a most uncomfortable position, reader, for I
feared that I should lose a very useful member of my frame: it was my
_right_ hand. Had I lost it, I should have been unable to have written
this or any of the other papers I have given you. The teeth of the
tigress became more and more firmly closed, and my efforts to disengage
my hand were unavailing; I called for assistance, but no one was within
hearing; when, calling courage and resolution to my aid, I bethought me
of my own principles, and, raising my other hand, dealt Kate as severe a
blow as I was able with my clenched fist upon her nose. The experiment
was successful. The animal, at once releasing my hand, sprang with an
angry howl to the opposite side of her cage, from which in a few moments
she returned cowering and submissive, apparently eager to regain that
portion of my good opinion that she seemed conscious of having forfeited.
If, then, you are attacked, act with promptness and decision. Use your
rod freely; but if you find yourself in danger, employ your pistol,
not, however, that loaded with ball (reserve it as a last resource,
when there is nought else between you and death), but that loaded only
with powder and tow; fire it into the animal’s face, and I think there
is no doubt but it will afford you ample time for escape; nay, it may
in all likelihood render you conqueror; and if you perceive that the
shock has terrified your assailant, hand the pistol to be re-loaded
by an assistant, while you advance and finish with your rod what the
pistol began. If you be seized and overpowered, let your attendants use
the heated irons; they should be of a sufficient length to reach to any
part of the cage, and should be applied to the nose and mouth. They will
generally be found successful in turning the current of affairs.
Ere taking leave of my readers, I must say a few words as to introducing
animals of different species to each other. A very brief notice,
comprised under one or two heads, will suffice. First, let _each_
animal be perfectly and individually under your control. Secondly, do
not put the strangers into the same cage all at once, but put them into
a cage partitioned by an iron railing, in which leave them for a few
weeks, until you begin to perceive that they have made each other’s
acquaintance, and may be trusted together; and do you enter the cage
with them when first brought together, and visit the least symptom of
hostility with instant and effective chastisement. They should not at
first be left together entirely, but only for an hour or two each day
while it is convenient to you to attend. By and bye, when they become
sufficiently familiarized, you need be under no apprehension. When
two animals have been brought together, it will be comparatively easy
and safe to introduce a third, then a fourth, and so on; the safety
increasing in proportion to their numbers. Make it also your business to
select your animals with judgment. To an old leopard introduce a young
lion, for instance, because the leopard will, in consequence of the
youth of his new acquaintance, crow over him, and aid you in subduing
him. This advantage, to be gained by observing dissimilarity of ages, is
by no means to be overlooked, as it is a powerful agent in the work of
domestication and association of the different species of animals. When
one animal is of a timid kind--the natural prey probably of the other,
which latter is fierce and powerful--you have nothing to do but to make
the more powerful animal _afraid_ of its timid and defenceless companion.
This may be done in various modes, just as the time or opportunities
may suggest. A simple illustration may serve. Take a young cat and put
her into a cage. Take a rat’s or a mouse’s skin, and fill it with hot
scalding bran; throw it to the cat, and when she runs at it, take hold of
her and thrust the hot skin into her mouth; keep it there for a minute
till she is well burned, and you have rendered that cat ever afterwards
harmless towards mice, at least towards such as you may introduce to
her; a wild one which she met with at large might fare differently,
though I hardly think she would even attempt to injure it. Treat a
bird-skin in this manner, and, after the scalding, tie it for a while
around puss’s neck, and you have secured your aviary from molestation.
Sometimes the first experiment of this kind is not successful. When such
is the case, however, be not disheartened, but repeat it; and one or two
such inflictions cannot fail being effective. You may thus have cats,
rats, mice, birds, &c., &c., all in one cage; a curiosity I have often
beheld, and which I have myself succeeded in forming in the manner I have
described.
Let not the reader who may endeavour to put the above rules in practice
be disheartened by a little difficulty at starting. The power of nature
is strong, and it is not until after a long and severe course of training
that art can expect to overcome it. Let, therefore, the experimenter
ever bear in mind the extraordinary force of nature, and the vast labour
necessary to keep it in abeyance; and in order that he should do so, I
shall tell him the following anecdote:--
“Cecco maintained that nature was more potent than art, while Dante
asserted the contrary. To prove his principle the great Italian bard
referred to his cat, which by repeated practice he had taught to hold a
candle in its paw while he supped or read. Cecco desired to witness the
experiment, and came not unprepared for his purpose. When Dante’s cat
was performing its part, Cecco lifted up the lid of a pot which he had
filled with mice; the creature of art instantly showed the weakness of
a talent merely acquired, and, dropping the candle, sprang on the mice
with all its instinctive propensity. Dante was himself disconcerted; and
it was adjudged that the advocate for the occult principle of natural
faculties had gained his cause.” Bear this anecdote therefore in mind.
Do not forget the power of natural instinct, even over the most careful
artificial training; and let it be your anxious care to keep far distant
every circumstance that might provoke the awakening of the one, or tend
to shake or to subvert the influence of the other.
This short sketch has, I trust, given my readers an insight into the mode
by which Van Amburgh and his rivals perform their wonders; and I can
assure them, that by following the principles I have here laid down, they
may themselves, if they choose, equal in their own private menageries the
performances of those public exhibitors.