The mule is of great use in carrying loads over mountain paths. It has

a firm, sure foot and can carry loads of five hundred pounds for weeks

at a time over pathless hills. The planters of the South could not do

without it in their cotton and sugar fields and it takes the place of

the horse for much of the street work of cities.

This is not all. Mules are often used for riding and are very good for

this. They are also used in carriages. They are raised in large numbers

in Spain, where fine ones bring high prices, selling from $150 to $350.

We should hardly look to the donkey and the mule for signs of powers

of thought, but it is likely that they are equal to the horse in

intellect. The story of a gate-opening mule, given above, goes beyond

anything we have found said about the horse, and it is very likely that

all those members of the horse tribe, which are much alike in habits,

are also much alike in thought powers.

[Illustration]

III

CLOVEN-HOOFED DRAUGHT ANIMALS

Now we come to the two-toed animals, those called the cloven-hoofed.

Looking at our own arms and legs we find five toes on each foot and

five fingers on each hand and might fancy that this is the natural

number. We find it to be so with the monkeys and with many other

animals but we soon find some with fewer toes. Thus the dog, while it

has five toes on its fore feet, has only four on its hind feet.

In the tapir and the rhinoceros we meet with three-toed animals and

soon come across two-toed and one-toed animals. The two-toed are very

common, for we find them in the sheep and cattle of our fields, the pig

of the barnyard, the camel, the deer, the antelope, and several other

kinds. As for the one-toed, their story has just been told.

Is it not worth knowing that the fewer toes an animal has the faster

and longer it can run? We find this in the one-toed horse, and its

cousins, the ass and the zebra, the greatest runners of all animals.

Next to them come the two-toed animals. Of these the deer and antelopes

are fast runners, though some of them run very little. We do not

find many runners among the five-toed animals. Those of the cat tribe

are better at jumping than running. In the dog tribe, in which are

the wolves and foxes, there are good runners, but these animals trust

to their wits as much as to their legs, catching their game often by

cunning tricks.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

The Native Ox Cart of Delhi, India]

Another matter of some interest is the fact that all the one-toed

animals are much alike in form and habit, while the two-toed differ

so much that we can find little or no likeness between them. Take the

ox, the goat, the pig, the buffalo, and the camel. Are these alike in

anything except their split hoofs? The fact is that the single hoof

seems to fit animals only for running, while the double hoof fits them

for various kinds of life. We find them at home in the desert, on the

mountains and plains, in the forest depths, and in swampy regions,

their forms and habits changing to suit the kind of life they lead.

Many of these animals have been tamed and made to serve man in various

ways. We can see them all about us, some of them kept for food, some

for work in the field or on the road. Let us take a look at those used

for work.

THE OX AND BUFFALO

That great lumbering beast we call the ox, with his long horns and his

slow, lazy walk, is one of the strong workers of the world. Go where we

will we see him, pulling the plough or the cart and wagon. If we leave

home and go over the world we shall find many people using the ox. In

South Africa we may see long teams of them pulling the heavy wagons of

the farmers. In India the Hindu people eat no meat, but they keep many

cattle to work in their fields. It is the same in many other countries

both of the Old and the New World.

Among our own people the ox is much used as a working animal. While

large use is made of the horse and donkey, the strength and patience

of the ox give it great value and it is used for many kinds of work.

Though a slow, plodding animal, it can pull a big load by the aid of

its wooden yoke. In the fields of the South the farmers and planters

could not well get along without it.

Our ox is not the only worker of his kind. In far-off Asia there are

two other animals which are cousins of the ox and are made to work

like him. Their names belong to the end of the alphabet, for they are

called the Yak and the Zebu. The Yak is found in Tibet and other parts

of Central Asia, where it is tamed and put to work, but not to pull the

cart or the plough. It can carry heavy loads and travel twenty miles a

day.

[Illustration: Hauling Sugar Cane in Puerto Rico]

This animal has a thick coat of long, silky hair, which hangs nearly to

the ground. Ropes and cloth are made from it. The tail is just a great

bunch of long hair. The Yak does not bellow like the ox but gives a

short grunt. Its milk is very rich, and fine butter is made from it.

[Illustration: The White Yak of the Asiatic Mountains]

The Zebu is kept in India, China, East Africa and the islands of the

eastern seas. It is much like the ox but has a big hump of fat on its

shoulders. Sometimes there are two humps. In this way it is like the

camel. Some of the zebus are larger than any oxen and some are only as

big as a large mastiff dog. They are quiet, gentle animals, made to

work in the plough and in the road and also used for riding. They can

travel from twenty to thirty miles a day.

There is another animal much used for the same kind of work, the

Buffalo. This is not the animal long known in our country as the

buffalo, but which is really not a buffalo, its proper name being

bison. It is not a savage animal and could easily have been tamed and

put to work. But as the settlers in the colonies had the ox and the

horse already trained to their work no one tried to tame the bison.

Since no one cared for these great animals, the hunters got after them

and shot them in such vast numbers that now they are nearly all gone.

Where fifty years ago there were millions of them in the West, to-day

there are only a few hundreds to be found anywhere.

[Illustration: The American Bison alone on the Prairie]

The real buffalo is found in the south of Asia and Europe, where it

is tamed and put to work, much use being made of it. There is another

species found in Africa which is very fierce and savage, hunters often

being more afraid of it than they are of the lion. The buffalo of India

is also savage in its wild state and the princes of that country set

it to fight with the tiger in their public shows. Armed with great,

sharp horns, it is more than a match for the tiger.

In its tame state the buffalo is a very docile animal when it is well

treated, but will not bear bad treatment. In size and shape it is like

a large, clumsy ox, but it is much stronger than the ox and can carry

or draw a much heavier load. Thus it is of great value as a working

animal.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

Cultivating Rice Field with the Chinese Ox. Hawaii]

It is used in many parts of the East. The farmer in the Philippine

Islands could not get along without it, as it is his common helper in

the fields. Known there by the name of Carabao, it is loved by its

owner and played with by his children, and is the plough-horse of the

islands. It can be driven by a mere child. The plough used there is no

more than a heavy stick of wood sharpened to a point at one end, with a

handle for the farmer and a beam to which the buffalo is harnessed.

This is the way in which the rice fields of the East are worked. The

buffalo is also kept in Egypt, Greece, Italy and some other countries

and everywhere is a very useful working animal. But it has one habit

that needs to be looked after.

By nature it is a swamp dweller, and can keep its head under water for

two minutes at a time, feeling at the bottom of pools and streams for

certain favorite plants. If it is to be kept in health it must have

its daily mud-bath. It loves to fling itself in the mire and shuffle

about until it is covered with mud from its tail to its eyes. When it

has dried itself in the sun it looks like a huge clay image. It has its

reason for this, for in those swamp regions are millions of stinging

flies and the mud is intended as a coat of armor.

Strong as the buffalo is, it cannot work for more than two hours

without rest, and will not live long if kept at a distance from

streams. Its fondness for mud and water is the habit that needs to be

looked after. It is not safe to load it with any goods that are likely

to be spoiled by water, for it will lie down with its load in any

stream it comes near.

Travellers who have ridden on the Philippine Carabaos have found out

this habit in a way not to their liking, for they have more than once

been flung suddenly into a mud-bath by their ugly steeds. If the animal

sees a bed of mud along the road he is sure to fling himself into it

unless kept out by a strong rein. And unless his rider gets off in a

hurry he will be treated in the same way. In Italy the buffalo is most

at home in the Pontine Marshes, and no one can keep it anywhere unless

there are mud and water near at hand.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

The Carabao, the Working Animal of the Philippine Islands]

THE LAPLAND REINDEER

While the buffalo is the draught animal of the sultry south and the

ox of the more temperate regions, in the freezing north the Reindeer

takes their place. Among the many species of deer, some of which, as

the moose and elk, are large and strong, this is the only one that has

been made to work for man. The people of Lapland could not live without

it, and it is also of very much use to the tribes of northern Siberia.

We have the same animal in the northern parts of America, where it is

called the Caribou, but there it has rarely been tamed and is hunted as

game.

The Laplander uses the reindeer as we use the horse and as the Eskimo

uses the dog, as a travelling animal. It is strong and swift and can

easily draw a weight of two hundred pounds on a sledge. It can travel

for a long time at a speed of nine or ten miles an hour.

A rich Laplander is a man who owns a great many reindeer, some of them

having herds of two thousand or more. To the men of Lapland, as we are

told, "the reindeer serves as a substitute for horse, cow, sheep, and

goat." It gives fine milk, is a good traveller, its hair is of use, and

its flesh and skin are of much value. Almost every part of the dead

animal can be used in some way, so that it serves the Laplander dead or

alive.

It is not hard to keep. In the summer it feeds on the shoots of the

willow and the birch, and in winter on the reindeer-moss and other

snow-covered plants. To get at these it uses both its hoofs and its

long, branching antlers in digging through the snow. This is the way

in which various hoofed animals keep themselves in the winter, such as

the musk-ox of the far north. The horse does the same in such cold

countries as Iceland.

[Illustration: Herd of Reindeer Brought from Lapland for the Use of

the Indians of Alaska]

As I have said, we have a reindeer of our own in the Caribou, but no

one has really tamed it and put it to work. Yet it would be useful in

the north of Canada, and reindeer have been brought from Lapland to

Alaska and Labrador. They seem to do well there and may in time become

of much service to the Indians and to white settlers.

THE SHIP OF THE DESERT

Far away from where we live, in what may be called the world of the

East, there are mighty deserts, almost oceans of sand. These are oceans

without water, vast tracts of land in which no blade of grass can

grow, except where a green oasis rises like an island in their midst.

Such a desert covers nearly the whole of Arabia and other wide regions

in Asia. On the map of Africa may be seen a still greater one, that

which bears the name of the Sahara.

In these deserts no rain falls to water the thirsty soil, springs are

few and far apart, and those who travel through them must carry food

and water on their journeys. These great sand oceans have their native

animal, the humped and long-necked Camel, the "ship of the desert," as

it is fitly called, since it carries freight and passengers over the

sand-strewn lands as ships do over the wide seas.

An ugly brute is the camel, with its humped back, its long neck, short

legs, and bunches of shaggy hair. But ugly as it is the Arab finds

something in it to praise, and could not well live in the desert

without it. Arabia and the other deserts of Asia are the camel's native

soil, and nature has fitted it well for its home in the sands. It does

not belong to the Sahara, but was taken there by the Arabs. But it

finds itself much at home on that world of sand. It is not well suited

for fertile countries, though it is used in India and China to carry

loads for their people.

The camel is a two-toed animal but is like the horse in having only one

hoof. This is a broad pad or cushion which takes in both its toes and

fits it to travel over the soft sand. It is not hard, like the horse's

hoof, but elastic so as to yield at every step.

[Illustration: A Sahara Desert Scene. The Mohammedan driver hobbles

the animal's foot while at prayer]

It is not only by its foot that the camel is fitted to dwell in the

realms of sand, for it seems made for the desert in every part of its

body. There are two kinds of camels, the Arabian, with one hump, and

the Bactrian, of the northern deserts, with two humps, and it is these

which give it so ugly a shape.

Are these humps a kind of saddle made for man's use, you ask? Not at

all, for the camel had them before there were any men to ride him.

They are really food supplies, masses of fat which help to keep the

animals alive on long journeys. No wise Arab will set out to cross the

desert without feeding his camel until its hump is full and plump, for

in this the animal carries its own food. It dines and sups on its hump

when there is nothing else to eat, so that the hump shrinks and grows

smaller.

But how does the camel find water to drink in the dry desert? Has it

a water supply as well as a food supply? We should not think this

possible, yet it has. In long journeys it needs water as well as food

and inside it is a well-filled water vessel. There are "water-cells" in

its stomach, in which about a gallon and a half of water can be stored

away, enough to last for three days if no water is found. At times,

when the rider is in great need of water, he will kill his camel so as

to get this store from its stomach.

There are still other ways in which the camel is fitted for a desert

life. Thus it has fine powers of sight and smell. It can smell water

when it is more than a mile away and if tethered will break its halter

and run in a straight line for the well or spring. Its nostrils are

mere slits, which it can close when the wind fills the air with sand.

At times a burning wind called the simoon blows fiercely across the

desert. Then the camel falls on its knees, stretches its long neck like

a snake along the sand, and closes its nostrils to keep out the sand

carried by the wind. Thus it stays till the storm is past. At the same

time the driver wraps his face in his mantle and hides himself behind

his beast.

There is one other thing to say. The camel likes good food when it is

to be had, but it can live on any kind of plants. It will eat anything

in the way of leaves, shrubs, dry sticks, or vegetable matter of any

sort, and can live on food on which many animals would starve. You may

see from all this how wonderfully it is fitted for a desert life.

Are we not right in saying that without the camel the Arab would find

it hard to live in the desert? For ages past long caravans of camels

have been crossing the sea of sand from the fertile lands of the nearby

countries to the oases where the settled Arabs dwell. Not until the

camel is four years old does its training as a carrier of loads begin.

Then it is taught to kneel down and to rise at a given signal, light

weights being at first put on it and heavier ones afterwards.

It can carry heavy weights, its loads ranging from 500 to 1000 pounds,

some breeds of camels being much stronger than others. In desert

journeys it is expected to carry this load twenty-five miles a day for

three days without drink. The swift animals used for riding will carry

their rider with his food and water fifty miles a day for five days

without drinking. A camel lives from forty to fifty years, so you may

see that it is of great value to its master.

[Illustration: A Rug Laden Caravan]

If too heavy a load is put on its back the camel will not rise from its

knees; but when once on foot it is very patient and will plod on under

its heavy load until it is ready to die. When its load is taken off it

does not seek the shade, like other animals, but kneels down in the

full glare of the sun, as if it loved the burning sand.

THE DROMEDARY

There are almost as many breeds of camels as there are of horses, and

the kind used for riding is as different from the load-carrier as the

race-horse is from the cart-horse. The burden-bearer has a thick body,

heavy feet, coarse hair, and a slow pace. The racing breed is thin of

body, fine-haired, and much more elegant in shape. It is as celebrated

for its swift speed as is the Arabian horse, and a good animal is able

to carry its rider a hundred miles in a day.

While all the single-humped camels are often called dromedaries, it is

more correct to speak of the racing camel as the dromedary. An Arab

sheik is as proud of a fine animal of this kind as an American or

Englishman is of his fine race-horse.

But if any of you should ever be asked to mount a camel it would be

wise to decline the honor, unless you are good at holding on, for

camel-riding is an art that must be learned. The awkward animal has

a swinging and jolting gait that is hard to get used to. During the

world's fair at Chicago in 1893 one of the greatest amusements of the

Midway was to see people trying to ride the camels which had been

brought to the Egyptian section of the fair. It was much better fun for

the lookers-on than for the riders. In camel-riding a saddle is not

used, as on the horse, but a sort of platform is fastened on the hump.

The camel we have so far spoken of is the one-humped Arabian kind. The

two-humped or Bactrian species is larger and stronger but is not nearly

so common. It is found in the desert region of the north from the Black

Sea to China. Both kinds are found in Central Asia, but the Bactrian

goes as far north as Siberia, where the cold is often very severe and

it has to live on the leaves and twigs of the willow and birch trees.

Though the camel is fitted by nature for life in the desert, it is much

used elsewhere. For ages past it has been the great carrier in Asia,

long camel trains, or caravans, taking the place of the modern railroad

train. It is also used for pulling carts and for ploughing, in which

yokes of four camels may be seen. You could not think of anything more

awkward or clumsy-looking than a camel harnessed to a cart.

[Illustration:

From Madeira's Hunting in British East Africa

Camel Hauling Water. The Camel is Used Alike as a Carrier and a Drawer

of Burdens]

If any one asks about the intellect of the camel we can only say that

it does not show much sign of having any. It seems to be a stupid

creature, with only sense enough to protest against bad treatment. In

most cases it is very docile but if ill-treated it can be as obstinate

as a mule. Also it bears in mind a wrong done to it and will at times

wait a long time to revenge itself. The camel-driver knows this and if

he thinks the animal is waiting its chance to attack him he will throw

his clothes before it. These the animal tosses and tramps on in a wild

rage. After that it appears to forget the wrong done it and the man is

safe.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

Yaks Picketed near Camp in India]

The camel is useful to its owner in other ways than those mentioned.

Thus it supplies him with food, the Arabs being fond of the flesh of

the young camel, which tastes like veal. Camel's milk is also excellent

to drink and can be made to yield butter and cheese. The hair is woven

by the Arab into cloths suitable for clothing and for tent covers and

the finer hair is used for paint brushes. So living and dead the camel

serves his master.

THE LLAMAS AND ALPACAS

If my readers are now ready to leave the deserts of Asia and go with me

to the mountains of South America they will find there the only animals

on the earth that are relatives of the camel. How the family of the

camels came to be so widely separated no one knows. As it is, we find

than on two sides of the earth with no links to join them.

In Peru and Chile there are four different kinds of these camels of

the New World, two of which, the Llama and Alpaca, have been tamed,

the others being wild. These are not animals of the desert, but lovers

of the hills, as they dwell on the highest parts of the Andes. Like

the camels of the East, they have long been in the service of man.

The Llama was the bearer of burdens for the old Peruvians and is a

burden-bearer to-day, though the mule is beginning to take its place.

These animals do not look like the camel. Their backs have no humps and

their heads are more like that of the deer. Instead of the small ears

of the camel they have erect ears like the mule. But they have long

necks like the camel, also cushioned feet and a stomach that is fitted

to hold water. This is strange in animals that have no need to store up

water. It seems as if the habit of storing water began very long ago

among the ancestors of the camel tribe.

The Llama is a much smaller animal than the camel, being about three

feet high at the shoulders. It keeps its head raised like a deer and

is a gentle and docile animal, though it has a habit that is not much

liked by those that make it angry. This is to squirt a mouthful of its

yellow spittle into their faces. This has an unpleasant odor and this

nasty habit makes drivers careful not to overwork the animals.

[Illustration: A Llama Train Descending the Mountains of Peru]

The Llama is a sure-footed creature, knows how to find food for itself,

and can carry a weight of a hundred pounds about twelve miles a day.

This makes it very useful for the miners of the Andes, who use it to

carry their ore down the rough and steep mountain paths. When the

animals are tired they will lie down, and the only way to make them

get up is to take off their loads. That is another way they have to

make their drivers treat them kindly.

The Alpaca is a smaller animal than the Llama and is not used to carry

goods, but for all that it has its uses and is kept in large flocks on

the high levels of the Andes. Its value lies in its wool. While the

hair of the Llama is coarse and of little use, the Alpaca is covered

with a long, fine wool, of a silky lustre, which if left uncut will

grow to twenty, and even to thirty inches in length. If cut every year

it grows to be about six or eight inches in length. Its color is often

a yellowish-brown, but is sometimes gray or black.

For very many years the Indians have made their blankets and cloaks of

alpaca wool, and for more than fifty years it has been used in Europe

and America to make shawls, coat-linings, umbrella-covers and other

goods. The wild species have also a very delicate and soft wool, of

high value in weaving, but it is not nearly so long as that of the

alpaca.

THE ARCTIC BEAST OF BURDEN

A fact many of you may know is that nearly all the animals kept by man

for work or for food are those with hoofed feet. Among other animals

that he puts to work may be named the dog, and this is not used much as

a worker. A little has been said in former pages about working dogs,

but the only region in which the dog is kept only for work is in the

Arctic zone. The dog is the working animal of the Eskimo and the only

one. Therefore in speaking of animals that work for man we must not

forget the Eskimo dog.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of The Philadelphia Museums

Dog Train Hauling Provision in Northern Canada]

These big, strong, savage, thick-coated dogs of the realm of ice, are

so much like the wolf that if let loose they would soon begin to make

their living in the wolf's way. Their owners do not think of making

pets or hunters of them. They simply feed and drive them and keep them

in order with the whip. What the Eskimo dog dearly loves is a fight,

and they snarl and snap at one another as savagely as any wolf could

do. Only the sharp use of the whip can keep them from fighting.

The Eskimos could not live in their cold country without the aid of

these hardy animals. No other creatures could be found so well suited

to their needs. With their thick and warm coat of hair these dogs can

bear the greatest cold, and at night all they need for bed or shelter

is a snow-bank into which they can dig and bury themselves. Here they

sleep as cosily as if they were in a bed of feathers.

They will eat any kind of meat or fish, and can drag a sledge with

great speed and for hours at a time over the ice. Thus it may be seen

that the Eskimos and Indians of the north have a useful servant in the

dog. They hitch it to their sledges, the number of dogs varying with

the load to be drawn. No reins are needed. There is a leader to the

team trained to follow a trail and to obey its master's orders. The

driver also carries a long, stinging whip with which he is very expert

and can reach any dog in the team. If they get into a fight, as they

are apt to do even when drawing a sledge, the whip is used to bring

them back to their work.

What would travellers in the sea of ice or seekers for the North Pole

have done without the dog? It has drawn them and their food in all

their journeys over the ice and the Eskimo dog is the only animal

besides man that ever reached the Pole. Without its aid Peary, the

great explorer, would never have got to the North Pole or got back

again to his ship. Is it not well to speak, then, about how the dog

helped him in this famous discovery?

When Peary took his ship, the Roosevelt, far to the north, he had on

board more than two hundred dogs and plenty of walrus meat to feed

them. When he went north over the ice these dogs were used to draw the

sledges loaded with food and other supplies. The explorers had to walk;

no dogs could be spared to draw them.

[Illustration: Alaskan Dog Team. The Winter Mail-Carriers]

On his last dash to the north, from 87° 57´ north latitude to 90° (a

distance of about 140 miles), he had five sledges and forty dogs. The

sledges were the pick of twenty-five that had started from the ship and

the dogs were the best of all his teams. Also for drivers he had his

four best Eskimos. With these sledges and men and dogs he got to the

North Pole, which no one had ever reached before, and the faithful dogs

shared the glory of the discovery. They came back with him--some of

them, for some died on the way. The poor brutes did not know what they

had done, and no doubt thought a good meal of walrus meat better than a

dozen Poles, either North or South.

Now shall we say something about the South Pole? Dogs have been used

there too, but when Lieutenant Shackleton, the English explorer, made

his famous journey in that region in 1909, he took with him four of the

hardy ponies of the North, thinking they would be better than dogs.

But his ponies died, one by one, and he and his men had to drag their

sledges back by hand, eating the frozen pony meat as they toiled along

over mountains of ice. Later explorers have taken dogs with them as

better fitted for the work than the best ponies.

THE ELEPHANT IN MAN'S SERVICE

I do not need to tell you what the Elephant is like. Almost everybody

has seen this noble creature, the largest of all animals except the

whale. It belongs in its way to the hoofed animals, though it has five

toes on each foot. For these are covered by a sort of elastic hoof,

something like that of the camel, which gives it an easy, springy

step. Though its home is in Asia and Africa, it has often been brought

to America and shown in menageries and other places. It is a great,

clumsy-looking brute, with a long, flexible trunk, ivory tusks, great

flapping ears, stout legs and broad hoofs. The tusks, you know, are

great overgrown teeth made of hard ivory.

It does not look like an animal that could think, but few of the

animals below man have done so many wise and smart things. Only the dog

and the monkey are its equals. I shall speak of its thinking powers

further on, but here I wish to deal with the elephant as a worker for

man.

The wild elephant loves its freedom and fights hard against those who

seek to capture it, but when taken and tamed is often very mild and

gentle. In India large parties of men, four hundred or more in number,

are sent out to drive the wild elephants into great, strong pens that

have been built of heavy timbers. Here tame elephants are used to hold

the wild ones while they are being tied fast. By these and other means

many of them are made captives and they soon become man's willing

friends and helpers.

The elephant is made use of in various ways. In ancient times it was

often used in war. Troops of elephants were made to rush on the ranks

of enemies and kill them with trunk and hoofs. In this way even the

Roman armies were put to flight, they being scared when they first saw

these huge, strange animals. But they soon learned how to frighten them

with torches and drive them back upon their friends.

The elephant has long been used in India as a working animal, and for

this its great strength makes it of much use. It can lift and move

heavy loads and a common elephant can carry half a ton for a long

distance. But they need much care and cost a good deal to keep, for it

takes about 800 pounds of fodder a day to feed a large one.

When at work they show very good sense and know well how to do things.

You would think so if you could see them at work in piling or moving

timber. I fancy you would laugh to see how nicely and neatly they do it

and what good sense they show.

The female elephants have no large tusks, so that they can use only

their trunks in moving the logs, but the male animals use their great

tusks as well as the trunk. They will push logs weighing a ton and a

half with ease. If the log has to go into the river they will push and

roll it along to the bank, and as it slides down the muddy bank to the

water will give it a slap with the trunk, as if to say, "Good-bye, old

fellow; there you go."

If the log to be moved happens to be jammed among the others, the wise

animal soon sets it right. He will begin by getting his tusks under

it and lifting it to the proper height. If the log is a heavy one, he

will sink down on his knees so as to get a better lift upon it. It is

a lesson in elephant wit to see him stack timbers. He will lift one

end of the log nine or ten feet, and put it on top of the pile. Then

he will go to the other end and push this forward until the log lies

straight.

The driver helps him in this by words and signs, all of which he knows

as well as a sheep dog knows the words of the shepherd. The best

trained animals are put to work in the saw mills, where they move about

with much care among the saws and other machines. One man who saw an

elephant laying planks and slats to be sawed, said in a newspaper

that he saw the animal shut one eye while it squinted along the bench

with the other to make sure the timber was laid straight. Perhaps the

reporter had both eyes shut when he saw this.

[Illustration: Elephant Piling Lumber. Observe How the Log is Grasped

between the Trunk and the Tusks]

It must be said that elephants are in some ways like men and boys.

There are willing ones and lazy ones; some that like to work and some

that hate work. You will see the willing ones drag along a log that

weighs two tons without a groan. The lazy ones may be as strong as the

willing ones, but they will make a dreadful fuss over a log not half as

heavy. They are like boys, too, in the fact that some of them have good

tempers while others are cross and surly.

There is one thing more to be said about the elephant. It knows how

heavy it is and does not like to go over a weak place. Thus it will

not walk over a bridge until it has tried it to learn if it is strong

enough, and it will not go into a boat without doing the same. You may

see that it has sense enough to take care of itself.

Here is the story of an elephant that had every day to go over a small

bridge. "He one day refused to go over it, and it was only by goring

him most cruelly with the _hunkoss_ (a sharp iron goad) that the driver

could get him to venture on the bridge, the strength of which he had

first tried with his trunk. At last he went on, but before he could get

over the bridge gave way and they fell into the ditch, which killed the

driver and greatly injured the elephant." It is very likely that the

wise animal had found it to be weak when he last crossed it and knew it

was not safe.

I must tell you the story of some elephants that were with a body of

troops in the mountain region of India. In their march they came to a

steep place where the men laid a stairway of logs for the elephants to

climb up. The first elephant came to it, took a good look, shook his

head, and backed off. When the driver tried to force him to climb he

would not move, but roared like a scared boy. Only when some change was

made in the stairs could he be got to set foot on them, and he climbed

up with great care, trying every step as he went.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

A Military Elephant on Duty, India]

When he was part way up he came to a tree which he tried with his trunk

and did not like. It seemed too weak. Again he stopped. The driver

tried to get him to go on with such words as "My life," "Well done, my

dear," "My son," and other kind words of which elephants are very fond,

but he would not be got to move. Then force was tried. The elephant

roared terribly but would not stir.

At length some other change was made in the logs. This the wise

creature tried and then went on until he reached the top. When he got

there he showed the greatest delight, caressing the keeper with his

trunk and throwing dirt about in the most playful manner.

The elephant that followed was a much younger one. It had watched its

comrade go up with great interest, making movements with its head and

trunk as if it was helping him. When he reached the top it gave a

salute like the sound of a trumpet. But when it was called on to take

its turn it was greatly scared and had to be forced to mount the slope.

When it got near the top the older animal reached down his trunk and

twined it around that of the younger and thus helped him to the summit.

Then the two animals greeted each other in the most friendly manner, as

if they were old friends just met. They embraced each other with their

trunks and stood for many minutes face to face as if they were talking

over what they had done. All this goes to show that the elephant has a

good deal of human nature in his huge carcass, and along with it a good

deal of sound sense.

ANECDOTES OF THE ELEPHANT

The stories just told show that the great beast we are talking about

has a keen idea of danger, often a better one than his drivers, and

is more careful than a good many men we have seen. We give them as

examples of the wit and wisdom of this sensible animal. If we look for

stories of this kind among the other working animals, such as the ox,

the buffalo, and the camel, we find little show of powers of thought,

but of the elephant as a thinker there are very many interesting

anecdotes. Some of these you may like to read.

The story has often been told that the elephant, when he wants to get

something a little out of reach, will blow on the ground or a wall

beyond, so as to drive it inward by the wind of his breath. Here is the

story of an elephant in which the cunning fellow took a different way

of doing this.

"I was one day feeding an elephant with potatoes, which he took out of

my hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just out of reach

of his trunk. After trying in vain to reach it, he at length blew the

potato against the opposite wall with such force as to make it rebound,

and he then without difficulty secured it." That is much like what a

boy does in playing hand ball.

The elephant has a good memory and also a fine sense of justice. It is

not a safe animal to play tricks upon, for it does not forget the man

who did this and will wait long for a chance to get even with him. Here

is an instance told by a Captain Shipp, who wished to learn for himself

if the elephant would bear in mind an injury and try to repay it.

One day he gave an elephant a sandwich of bread, butter and cayenne

pepper. After he had waited for six months he visited the animal to see

how it would act and began to fondle it as he had been used to do. The

great beast showed no signs of anger and the captain thought that it

must have forgotten him and his pepper sandwich. But suddenly, while

he was not looking, the elephant filled his trunk with dirty water and

drenched the captain from head to foot.

You may see from this that elephants have very good memories.

One gentleman tells of visiting some elephants in London, and moving

out of reach with his cane a part of the hay one of them was feeding

on. The great beast showed much anger at this act. "Look out for him,"

said the keeper; "he will never forget it." The joker forgot it, for

some weeks later he visited the same place and came within reach of the

animal's trunk. Instantly it made a savage blow at him, that would have

cracked his skull and killed him on the spot if he had not jumped back.

In fact, many instances might be given where elephants have killed

those who had injured them. Numbers of such tales could be told. Here

is a story that teaches more than one lesson of elephant nature.

An English gentleman, Mr. G. L. Layard, was visiting Ceylon and there

saw a troop of working elephants coming up the road in the evening.

Mrs. Layard asked if she might go down from the bungalow and see them

nearer at hand. "Certainly," said Mr. Birch, the gentleman who had them

in charge.

He took a bunch of bananas from the lunch table and led the way to a

fine female elephant, who was swinging her trunk about and looking at

them. He gave the fruit to the lady and said:--

"You may give them to her, Mrs. Layard; she is a nice, quiet beast."

Mrs. Layard held them out to the elephant, who took them gently, put

them in her mouth and swallowed them, and then fondled the giver with

her trunk. After patting and talking to her for some time they walked

back to the house, where something was said in praise of the animal.

"Yes," said Mr. Birch, "she is a noble beast, and very intelligent. She

has killed two of her keepers within the last month."

The lady grew pale as death on hearing this, and Layard turned on the

speaker in a rage.

"And you let my wife put herself in that creature's power!" he cried.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh," said Birch quietly, "do you think I would have let Mrs. Layard

go near her if there had been any danger! She is the quietest and best

tempered beast in the stud. She was quite right to kill her keepers.

They had robbed her of her food."

You may see from this that there is a code of right and wrong among

elephants. Kind treatment they meet with kindness and ill treatment

with revenge, and while they have a sense of justice they also have a

sense of humor, and can give trick for trick. You can at times see them

fairly laughing at some trick they have played.

While an elephant was being shown at Dublin, doing a number of things

he had been taught, a little boy, full of mischief but not of sense,

was doing everything he could to annoy the great beast. The elephant

gave no sign of taking notice, but it saw all that was passing, and

when the boy came near enough thrust out its trunk and snatched his hat

from his head. Then it turned half round, snorted loudly, and acted its

part so well that all who were there thought it had swallowed the hat.

The imp of mischief stood scratching his head and looking very blank,

while the great animal appeared as if he enjoyed the joke highly. By

the twinkle in his eyes he seemed to be laughing inwardly. In the end

he drew the missing cap from his mouth and flung it into the boy's face

with such an air of fun-making that all present broke into a loud roar

of laughter.

One would not think of such a huge brute playing tricks, but the

elephant is fond of a joke and seems to enjoy it as much as one of us

would. Elephants will raise latches, open doors, and show a fondness

for mischief in other ways. They will also steal and hide their theft

if the chance offers. An American showman saw one of them pull up the

stake to which he was chained, go to an oat-bin, wrench off the lock,

raise the lid, and eat all he wanted. Then he put down the lid again,

went back to his place, poked the stake into the same hole, and stamped

it down with his foot.

When his keeper came the cunning brute looked as innocent as a lamb.

The keeper raged and stormed on finding that he had been robbed, while

the big thief stood quietly by, with an odd twinkle in its little eyes.

Here is another story of the same kind. "An elephant in India was

chained to a tree, and his driver made an oven at a short distance in

which he put his rice-cakes to bake, and then covered them with stones

and grass and went away. When he was gone the elephant unfastened with

his trunk the chain round his foot, went to the oven and uncovered it,

took out and ate the cakes, re-covered the oven with the grass and

stones as before, and went back to his place.

"He could not fasten the chain again round his own foot, so he twisted

it round and round it in order to look the same, and when the driver

returned the elephant was standing with his back to the oven. The

driver went to his cakes, discovered the theft, and, looking round,

caught the elephant's eye as he looked back over his shoulder out of

the corner of it. Instantly he detected the culprit and punishment

followed. The whole affair was seen from the windows by the family."

No other animal has a weapon that can compare with the trunk of the

elephant. With this long and flexible nose he can tear off great limbs

from trees, and with the same trunk can be taught to pick up a pin. But

great and strong as he is, the elephant is very nervous. He is ready

to fight a tiger, yet mosquitoes disturb him very much and we are told

that he is as much afraid of a mouse as any nervous girl, and will

trumpet with terror if one comes near him.

Elephants like bright colors and sweet perfumes, they are very dainty

in their tastes, and are as fond of bathing as any one of us could

be. They dearly love to revel in the water, and an elephant bath is

something worth seeing. It is wonderful what tricks they can be taught

and how neatly they will go through with them.

In circuses and menageries the tricks of trained elephants are things

people like to see. Most of us have seen how these animals, clumsy as

they look, can balance themselves on tubs, stand on their hind legs

like a poodle, with their fore-feet in the air, and do many other

tricks, such as standing on their heads, with their hind feet raised.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

A State Elephant of India with Howdah]

Baby-elephants also can be taught to play many tricks, such as to sit

at table, use the fan, and the like. We are told of two of them named

Jock and Jenny, that would come in, bow to the audience, mount on a

plank, and see-saw like a couple of children. One of them would then

walk on the tops of a double row of bottles. They would also play on an

organ and drum, dance to the sound of bells, and do other clever tricks.

If we seek elephant stories of another kind there are a number of

cases in which the animals have been hurt and borne surgical treatment

with great patience. There is a case where one went blind through some

disease in its eyes. Nitrate of silver was applied to one eye and

caused so great a pain that the animal roared wildly. But the treatment

did the eyes so much good that when the doctor came the next day to

try it on the other eye, the animal lay down, placed his head quietly

to one side, and drew in his breath as we would do when expecting to

be hurt. When it was over he gave a sigh of relief, and showed how

grateful he was by movements of his trunk.

This is one out of various tales of this kind that could be told. The

elephant here learned by the good done to one eye that he was going to

be helped with the other, and made up his mind to bear the pain for the

good it would bring him.

Not many animals can learn things without being taught, but the

elephant can. One thing a tamed elephant is taught to do is to pick up

things from the ground and hand them to the driver on his shoulders. At

first he is made to pick up only soft articles, for he is apt to throw

them up with force and might hurt the man above.

After a time the animal gets to notice the difference between soft

things and hard things. A bundle of clothes may still be thrown up with

force, but a hard and heavy thing, such as a piece of iron chain, will

be handed up gently. The wise creature learns in time to pick up a

sharp knife by its handle and lay it on his head so that the driver can

also take it up by the handle, and when made to pick up things it has

never seen before it shows that it knows how to deal with them.

We might go on and give many other examples of the mental powers of the

elephant, but enough have been given to show that this great creature

is one of the most sensible of all beasts and is as quick at learning

the best way to do things as any others of the animal tribe. And it can

think out things for itself, which shows finer thought than to have

them taught it by others.

[Illustration]

IV

ANIMALS USED FOR FOOD AND CLOTHING

When we think of the many things man does with the animals he has

tamed, the first that comes into our minds is their use in hunting and

as house guards and pets. But we must not forget how useful they are as

workers, in the fields and in the roads, in war and in peace. For long

ages they were the only helpers that men had in work and travel. Only

within our own times have we found out how to put the forces of nature

at work for us and how much stronger those are than any animals. The

animals kept by us have one value for which the forces of nature can

never serve. That is their value for food. While we can use the power

of the winds and of coal and iron in doing work, we cannot feed upon

these or anything of this kind. To live we must have food, and this

we can get only from the world of plants and animals. We also use the

skins and furs of animals for clothing, and weave warm cloths out of

their wool and hair. These are the things I now propose to talk about.

THE CATTLE OF THE FIELD

Is there anything that adds more to the beauty of a scene in the

country than the grazing cows that give life to the fields, now

cropping the grass, now resting under the shade of the trees, now

wading in cool streams, now lying in midday rest? They are so mild and

gentle, and look at us so quietly out of their big, kindly eyes that we

cannot help keeping a soft spot for them in our hearts.

[Illustration: Making Friends with a Guernsey Calf]

They wear horns, but they do not use them, and we can walk through a

herd of these large animals as safely as through a grove of trees; that

is, if they are all cows, if there is not a bull among them. The bull,

the male form of the cattle tribe, is a creature we must watch. If he

happens to be cross and bad-tempered, as is often the case, he is not

safe to trust. It is certainly not wise to wear a red coat or hat in

a field where a bull is kept, for he seems to look on this color as a

challenge to battle. To have to run from a bull is no fun, at least not

if he gets close enough to help you over a fence with his horns.

But we seldom see a savage cow. These are quiet, dull animals, that

have no thought of anything but to crop the grass and flick off the

flies from their skin with their waving tails. They do not have to take

care of themselves. Their masters and mistresses take care of them, so

they have nothing to do or think of but to grow fat and yield milk.

There are wild cattle in various parts of the earth, and these have to

take care of themselves, but the cattle of our fields have been kept

tame so long that it is hard to tell from what wild species they came.

We know that they were kept by the people of Egypt and China thousands

of years ago, and that the Egyptians had certain bulls which they

worshiped as gods. The bull and the cow are sacred animals in India and

are never killed for food by the Hindu people.

In modern times the cow has been kept chiefly for the milk she gives.

She is also kept as a food animal, but is not made to work, like the

bull and the ox. The animal that is killed for food is a large,

well-fed beast, with straight back and well developed body. As for the

bull, its savage nature is made use of in the bull-fights of Spain and

it is also used in the "bull-races" of the South of France.

Cows, as well as bulls and oxen, have two horns on their head. In some

breeds these are very long and powerful, but there are others that have

no horns and in fighting use their heads to butt with. In this way they

can give a powerful blow. With his head, his horns and his hoofs an

angry bull is an animal that it is best to keep away from.

Cattle are of many colors and it is this which gives beauty to many of

them. Among them we find such colors as black, white, yellow, brown,

fawn, reddish brown, black-spotted and other hues, this variety of

colors giving new beauty to a herd of grazing cows. It is a pretty

sight to see them strolling up the leafy lane in the evening to the

milking shed, with a boy and a dog to keep them moving.

MILK-GIVING COWS

There are a number of animals from which men get milk, but chief of

all these is the cow. Those are breeds of cows which are kept only for

milk-giving and which have been brought to yield so much and such rich

milk as to make them of great value. In all history we read of the

milkmaid, the girl whose duty it is to milk the cows, one of the chief

duties on a farm. Nowadays we do not hear so much about the milkmaid.

She has for the most part gone out of business.

No doubt, many of my young friends have seen how milking is done, the

cow with its full udders, the white stream of milk which flows from

the teats when pressed, and the large quantity of this rich fluid

which some cows will give. Perhaps some of you may have tried the art

yourselves, but it is an art that needs to be learned, and many cows

will not yield their milk to awkward fingers. Some of them, indeed,

when they do not like the milker, will kick over the full bucket and

now and then the milker with it.

In some way the cow turns part of the grass she eats into this rich

fluid, so useful to mankind, not only as a drink, but for the butter

and cheese it yields. Nature provides milk to all animals of the class

known as mammals as food for their young, but by long usage the cow

has been brought to give milk at all times and thus helps to feed her

keepers as well as her calves.

I hardly need tell you that milk is a white fluid in which float small

globes of fat. This fat is the butter of which we make so much use.

If the milk is let stand, the butter floats to the top and is skimmed

off in a rich fluid we call cream. By various modes of churning the

butter is got out of the cream, leaving a thin liquid behind called

buttermilk.

Butter is not the only thing got from milk. Cheese is another product

of much use. It is made from the solid parts of the milk. When an

acid, or a substance called rennet, which is obtained from the calf's

stomach, is put into the milk, the solids come together in a soft,

white jelly, leaving a greenish, watery liquid called whey. It is from

this jelly, or curd, that cheese is made by pressing out the whey and

leaving a hard, solid mass. There are many ways of making cheese and

many different kinds of cheese, often so unlike that we can scarcely

think they came from the same source.

[Illustration: Back to the Pasture After the Milking]

Now let me say something about the various breeds of milk-giving or

dairy cows. They differ very much. Some give a great deal of milk; some

much less. There are cows that have given as much as twenty-four quarts

of milk a day. Think of six gallons from one cow in one day, enough to

fill a vessel of large size! Others may give only ten quarts or even

less.

But the cow that gives the most milk does not always give the best,

for there is great difference in the richness of milk. Thus the best

butter makers may not be those that fill the fullest pail. The quantity

of milk depends on the food eaten, the kind and plenty of grass in the

fields or hay in the stables. But the amount of butter in it seems to

come from something in the animal herself.

You have often heard, and perhaps often seen, the different breeds of

dairy cows, the Jerseys and others. There are many of these breeds.

The Dutch cattle, those that come from Holland, are mostly good

milk-givers, also those of Holstein and Friesland yield a very full

pail, and there are splendid milk-givers elsewhere.

All of us must have seen the beautiful cows from the Channel Islands,

near the coast of France, known as Jerseys and Guernseys, often called

Alderneys, now so common in our fields and which give such rich milk,

from which splendid butter is made. We may also speak of the Ayrshire

cow of Scotland, which is of high value to the cheese-maker. All these

and other cows have been brought in numbers to this country, which has

no good breeds of its own.

Did any of my readers ever try to churn cream into butter? Those who

have done so did not find it very easy work. To lift a long rod up and

down or turn a handle till your arms feel ready to drop off is never

the best of fun. In past times all butter-making had to be done in this

way, with some sort of churn, but now in large dairies a small engine

is used to do the work. In our days great part of the butter is made in

creameries to which the farmers take their milk. Here the cream from

600 or 800 cows may be dealt with by one skilful butter-maker, who

handles it with great care, so that we get a better quality of butter

than was of old made on most of the farms.

[Illustration:

From Davis's Practical Farming

The Holstein Cow, a Great Milk Giver]

This way of getting the butter from the cream was started in the

United States, where now there are thousands of creameries in the many

states. From this country it has spread to many parts of Europe, but

there most of the butter is still made on the farm. Cheese is also made

in the same wholesale way and American cheese is sold in many parts of

the world.

We use here so much milk and butter that it is not easy for us to see

how people anywhere can do without it. Yet there are parts of the world

where cow's milk is not used. Thus if one should go to China he would

find the people making no use of the milk of their cows. And in India

the milk of the buffalo is liked better than that of the cow. Even in

parts of Europe little use is made of milk and butter. This is the

case in Italy, where olive oil takes the place of butter. But almost

everywhere, except in India, much use is made of cattle for food, and

of this something must now be said.

BEEF-MAKING CATTLE

In the United States the raising of cattle for meat is a great

business. For years past this country has fed its own people and helped

to feed those of Europe. The meat of cattle killed in Chicago and other

cities is sold in the markets of London and other parts of England and

the people of that country have long been growing fat on American beef.

This is not so much the case in Germany, France, and Russia, for great

numbers of cattle are raised there, but at times we could find the

beef of our country on the tables of most of these lands.

When the white man went to America he found no cattle there. But it was

not long before there were plenty of them, brought from Spain, France,

England and other countries. These spread all over the continent until

there were cattle everywhere. But these were not the best of cattle.

There were no fine breeds raised here as in Europe.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

Ox Team and Native Cart, with Wooden Wheels, Nicaragua]

This is the reason why so many Jersey, Ayrshire, Dutch and other fine

milk-givers have been brought here from Europe. Meat-making cattle have

also been brought, those known as Shorthorns, Herefords, and others,

and now we can find in our fields great numbers of fine, fat animals,

which are taking the place of the old poor stock.

Good beef cattle are large and square in shape, full and broad over the

back, with thick legs, short necks, and well rounded bodies. The eye

is bright, the face short, the skin soft, the flesh mellow and rich.

Cattle of this kind are to be seen now in numbers in our fields. But

the great cattle-raising sections of this country are the broad grassy

plains of the West and the vast fields of Texas. Here may be seen the

great ranges, where for long years past cattle have been kept by the

millions, roaming about, feeding on the rich grass, and growing fat and

juicy.

Here also is the home of the cowboy, the man who lives on the horse and

rides as if horse and man were one animal. His duty it is to ride among

the great herds, keep them in order, stop them when they run away in

mad fright, and live among them as the sheep-dog lives among the sheep.

Brave fellows and splendid riders are these cowboys, among the best in

the world.

If you should go west to-day you would not find the open cattle range

of the past. The cattle-owners have found it best to fence in their

ground, and wire fences may now be seen all over that once open

country. But the fields thus made are very large and the cowboy still

finds plenty to keep him busy.

If we seek other parts of the world we shall find cattle-ranges like

those of the United States. In South America there are two great

regions of this kind. One of these is in Venezuela. Here are great

open plains called llanos, covered with rich, thick grass on which

millions of cattle feed. The same is the case with the pampas of

Argentina, vast prairies over which cattle roam in countless numbers.

On those great plains dwell the brothers of the cowboy, daring riders

whose lives are spent in the care of the grazing herds. The Gauchos, as

the cattlemen of Argentina are called, are not the sons of civilized

fathers like our cowboys. They are a race by themselves, bold and

hardy, but ignorant, many of them part Indian. But they are born and

bred to the saddle and no riders can surpass them in handling their

swift horses.

Of the other countries where great herds of cattle are to be found we

may name South Africa and Russia. Mongolia, in the Asiatic part of

Russia, is a land of vast plains, called steppes. This may have been

the first region in which cattle were kept. As far back as history

goes the herdsmen of this great region have been roaming about with

their cattle, horses and other animals, living in tents, and moving

from place to place seeking new fields of grass when the old ones are

cropped. This was their life thousands of years ago and this is their

life to-day, and they seem no more civilized now than they were then.

We do not care to talk about the killing of these fat herds. That has

nothing to do with Home-Life, except in so far as we find their meat

on our tables, for the killing is mostly done in great sheds and pens

built for that purpose. It will be enough to say that the animals we

have been talking about are of the greatest use to man. They work for

him, they feed him with their milk and flesh, and after their death

nearly every part of them is of use. From their skins leather is made

and we walk upon their hides in our shoes. From the bones glue and

gelatine are obtained, and when the bones are ground they are used to

fertilize our fields. In fact use is made of nearly all parts of the

animal and hardly a scrap of it goes to waste.

[Illustration: An Ox-team on a Florida Plantation]

IN THE BULL RING

The bull is not a nice animal to deal with. It is often surly and

savage, and few of us care to be in the same field with it. In some

parts of the world its courage is made use of in a brutal kind of

sport. In former times what was called bull-baiting was very common in

England, and might be to-day only for the laws. A bull was driven into

a closed-in place and dogs were sent in to fight with him. Sometimes,

to make him furious, pepper was blown into his nose before he was set

free.

At times a dozen or more dogs were sent in at once. At other times the

bull was tied to a stake by a rope of some length, and bulldogs were

set upon him, one at a time. They were trained to seize the fierce

animal by the nose, which was called "pinning the bull." But the

best fun to the lookers-on was when the bull lowered his head to the

ground, caught a dog on his horns and tossed him a long distance away.

Bull-baiting was kept up until 1835, when laws were passed to stop this

cruel sport.

But bull-fighting, which has long been very common in Spain, is still

kept up in that country. In ancient times fights between bulls and men

were common in Greece and Rome, but in modern times they have been held

only in Spain and its colonies. They may be seen to-day in the cities

of Spain and Mexico.

As we have a baseball season in this country so they have a bull-fight

season in Spain. In the city of Madrid it lasts from April to November,

there being at least one fight every week. The fights are held in a

kind of circus, with seats for 10,000 or 15,000 people, who have to pay

well to see the brutal game.

There are three classes of men who take part in a bull-fight. The first

of these are the "picadores." These fight on horseback, each of them

with a lance. If the bull is a coward they crowd upon and kill it. If

it is brave they often have to fight for their own lives. The bull

may lift the poor horse on its horns or may throw the rider, who is

sometimes killed.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

Carting Manila Hemp. Philippine Islands]

When the picadore is in danger the second class, the "chulos," run in.

They wear bright-colored cloaks and gay ribbons and draw the bull

after them by waving their bright cloaks in his face. When the bull

shows signs of being tired these men throw darts at him which stick

into his neck. Some of these bear fire-crackers, the noise of which

makes the bull furious.

[Illustration:

Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums

Moose in Harness. This is a Rare Use of this Great Deer-like Animal]

Now the third man comes in, the "matadore." He is on foot and carries

a sword, and in his left hand is a short stick with a piece of red

silk tied to it. When the angry bull sees this red stick he rushes

at it, for he hates anything red. Now the matadore has his chance.

With one quick stroke he thrusts the sword into the animal between the

shoulder-blade and the spine, driving it in to the hilt, and the poor

bull falls dead.

Then a team of mules, gay with flags and bells, enter and drag out the

dead bull, another is driven in, and the fight begins again. The horses

and bulls are the chief sufferers, it being said that about 2500 bulls

and 3500 horses are killed every year in the bull-fights of Spain.

The horses used are poor creatures, only fit to end their lives in a

bull-fight.

The people cheer the matadore for his victory; but they are quite as

ready to cheer the bull that has killed his man. But it is a rare

thing for a man to be killed in the fight, usually it is only the poor

animals that suffer. The other nations of Europe and the people of this

country do not like bull-fights. They look on them as cruel and unfit

for civilized times. But the people of Spain love them and will not

give them up.

THE WOOL-CLAD SHEEP

Long, long ago, hundreds of years before men began to write history,

perhaps before they had tamed any other animal, the woolly creature

called the sheep began to share the home-life of man. In the first

pages of the Bible we find its name. Abel, the second son of Adam and

Eve, was a keeper of sheep before he was killed by his brother Cain.

It may have been kept in very early times in all parts of the earth,

for the sheep can live in all climates, from hot to cold, and its meat

and wool are of great use for food and clothing.

Also it is easily tamed, and in the ages of the past it became so used

to being taken care of that it has long forgotten how to take care of

itself. Thus the sheep that crop the grass in our fields have come to

be stupid animals. But this is not the case with the wild sheep which

are found in various parts of the earth. These are quite able to fight

their own battles and are sharp-witted, like most wild animals.

It is only the female sheep, the ewe, that is so dull. We all know that

the male sheep, the ram, is much more wide-awake. These often have very

large horns, and the wild ram knows quite well how to take care of

himself and his family. They will run from danger if they have to, but

if cornered can make a very good fight. Even one of our field rams has

at times shown itself a good match for a bull. While much smaller in

size, it is far more active and can hit a very hard blow with its bony

head and big horns.

Have you ever seen a fighting ram? One of them has been known to throw

a bull to the ground at the first rush. It can fight dogs, too, and

is always ready to defend itself and its flock. Rams also fight one

another, and when two of them come together at full run, their heads

crack like the sound of a musket and their hind parts are lifted

into the air. Many sheep have no horns, and these are not so fond of

fighting, as the horns are a great help to them.

Men keep sheep for two things, their wool and their meat. The same is

the case with cattle, which are also kept for two things, their milk

and their meat. All over the earth people are fond of mutton, or the

meat of the sheep, while the wool is used wherever warm clothes are

needed. In some cold countries the skin of the sheep, with its woolly

coat, is used as a cloak and is found a warm covering.

The wool of wild sheep is short and lies below an outside coat of long,

straight hair. But this hair is lost in the tame animals and a coat

of long, thick wool takes its place. Wool, you should know, differs

from hair in having a scaly surface, which causes its fibres to cling

together. This makes it good for twisting into yarn and weaving into

cloth, also for felting, as in the making of felt hats and rugs.

Of course very many of you have seen the sheep in the field, walking

slowly about all day long, cropping, cropping, cropping, as if eating

were all it lived for. This is the case all over the earth, for sheep

are the most common of our farm animals and are kept in vast multitudes

in various countries. So tame and gentle are they that the shepherd

and his dog can easily keep a large flock in order. He has to guard

them in some countries against wolves and also against sheep-killing

dogs.

[Illustration: Cattle and Sheep of the Scottish Highlands]

The sheep is a mountain animal, not a native of the level plains like

the horse and the ox. The wild sheep do not live on level ground but

among the lofty hills and are often found in very high places. We have

one species in our own country, the Big-horn or Rocky Mountain Sheep,

which can climb over the roughest cliffs and plunge down steep places

without hurting itself. There are other species in Asia and Africa,

with the same habits.

From this we know why tame sheep are so fond of hill climbing and why

they do so well in such rough regions as the Highlands of Scotland.

Young lambs are very fond of climbing every little hill they see. When

feeding, sheep like mountain sides better than they do plains. Here

they nibble away at the short, fine grasses, which they like better

than any other food.

You may have read of troubles and fights between the shepherds and

cowboys of our western plains. This comes from the close nibbling of

the sheep, which cuts the grass down to its roots and leaves no food

for the cattle. On this account the cattlemen hate the sheep-men and in

some cases kill large flocks of sheep. The sheep are said to do harm

also on the mountain sides, clipping the grass so close with their

sharp teeth that the rains carry away the soil, and leave none for the

trees to take root in.

There are a number of countries in which sheep are kept in mighty

flocks. These are the United States, Europe, Argentina, Australia and

New Zealand. There are numbers of them also in Asia and Africa and here

there are several queer kinds, which would seem very strange to us. The

oddest of these is the fat-tailed sheep. The tail of this animal grows

to a very great size and has been known to weigh 70 or 80 pounds. It

is a big bunch of fat of which the people of those countries are very

fond. In some cases, to keep it from being hurt by dragging on the

ground, little wagons are used and the sheep go about dragging their

tail behind them in a sort of baby carriage.

There is another kind with a huge hump of fat on its hind-quarters and

hardly any tail at all. On the other hand the Circassian sheep has a

tail so long that it trails behind on the grass and is covered with

fine, long wool. There is a kind of sheep in Africa with very long legs

and hanging ears, and in several places they have odd kinds of horns.

Those of the sheep of Wallachia make a complete turn and then rise up

from the head to a great length. The Iceland sheep and some of those of

Russia has three, four, and even five horns.

In Europe sheep have been kept during many centuries and a number of

useful breeds are now to be found in the different countries, some with

fine, thick wool, some with rich, juicy meat. All of the sheep of this

country were brought from Europe, and many of the best breeds are kept

here, among them the Southdown of England, which is of value for its

splendid mutton.

But nearly the whole of our sheep came from the Merinos of Spain, a

kind of sheep which has been kept in that country from the past ages on

account of its fine, soft wool. The Merino may now be found all over

America and Europe and also in Australia, so that it is the most common

kind of sheep on the earth. The first of them were brought to our

country in 1801 and we have now many millions of their descendants.

There is much more that could be said about sheep. No meat is more

common on our tables than mutton and in all cold countries woolen

clothing is worn. In Bokhara, a country of Central Asia, is a sheep

which yields the valuable _astrakhan_ fur. This is not taken from the

full-grown sheep, but from the lambs. When very young these bear a

short, fine wool, curled all over them in small locks. To make it curl

better they are sewn up, while very young, in another skin or a piece

of coarse linen. Long hairs soon grow through the wool and to prevent

this the lambs are killed when they are only a few days old.

[Illustration: The Merino Ram, the Great Wool Bearer]

There is still another use to which sheep are put. This is the making

of cheese. There is a breed in the south of France which are milked

and from their milk is made the famous Roquefort cheese. In making this

layers of moist bread crumbs, ground to powder, are placed between

layers of the milk curds. This mixture is pressed and salted and then

kept for a month or more in dark mountain caves. There the cheese

ripens and gets the special flavor for which it is liked.

WOOL SHEARING AND WEAVING

Sheep are of value for various things: their meat, which so many like;

their skins, from which parchment and fine leather are made; their

bones, used in making buttons; their fat, for soap and candles; but

most of all their wool, which has long been the most valued product. So

here I must tell the story of this very useful animal fibre.

Go back as far as we can in history we read of the sheep-shearing. You

may find it spoken of in the early parts of the Bible as a time of

feasting and merry-making. In many countries it is a festival time.

In past ages people seem to have cared more for the wool than for the

meat, though now sheep are kept as much for their mutton as for their

wool.

In the past the custom was to pull the wool from the sheep at the

molting season. This is the time when the sheep shed their wool and

when it comes out easily. But it is at times a cruel process, as the

skin may come off with the wool. It is still done in Ireland and in

parts of Europe, but the common custom in these days is to cut the

wool with a sort of tool or machine. This cuts the wool in a smooth and

even manner and does not hurt the sheep. It also can be done in much

less time. When in the old way it took half an hour to shear a sheep,

in the new way it can be done in ten minutes or less.

The sheep should be washed and the wool cleaned before they are sheared

and this is done in our country and in some others. But in many places

it is not done and the fleece is cut with all the grease and sweat in

it. Of course, these fleeces have to be washed by the buyers, and do

not bring so good a price.

Shall I say something about the uses of wool? In all times it has been

used for making cloth for clothing, and spinning and weaving are very

old duties of the household. If wool is made damp and then pounded it

clings together so as to form a kind of felt, and in our times much

wool is used in this way to make felts for hats, carpets and shoes.

Felting is a simple process, but in weaving there are many things to

be done. The wool has to be combed out, spun into yarn, and handled in

other ways before it can be woven into cloth and fitted for making into

clothes.

All this business of yarn-making and weaving is now done in great

factories, fitted with machines, which rattle and roar as they swiftly

change the rough fleeces of wool into smooth sheets of cloth. But all

this work in former times had to be done at home, in a much slower way,

from which there came a rough, coarse cloth called homespun.

This was the way in use in this country in the times of the colonies.

Many of the old spinning-wheels, by which the wool was spun into yarn,

are still kept and may be seen in museums, and some of the old looms by

which the yarn was woven into cloth are also to be seen.

It was hard work for the women of the house to make the clothing of

the family in this slow way. A suit of clothes then had to be worn for

a long time, for they took too much labor in the making to be thrown

aside as quickly as they now are. It was in these homespun clothes

that our soldiers won freedom in the Revolution, and they were woven

after that date. But in time the factory came, cloth grew plentiful and

cheap, and the rattle of the old spinning-wheel was no longer heard in

the land.

THE BEARDED GOAT

Now we come to an animal in some ways much like the sheep, but in other

ways very little like it. This is the goat, a more vigorous and hardy

animal. Unlike the sheep, it wears a beard under its chin. It is not

kept much in our country, for it is not well fitted for cold climates,

but likes best the warm airs of Southern Europe and Asia and Northern

Africa. Some of my readers may only know this animal from taking a ride

in a goat carriage when young. Or they may have seen it roaming about

in rough places eating anything it could find, for that is the way with

the goat. It will even eat tobacco and seems to think this a fine diet.

The wild goat, like the wild sheep, is a dweller in the mountains. It

is still more daring than the sheep. No peaks are too high for it to

climb, and when chased by the hunter it will make long jumps from one

pointed rock to another where no man would dare to follow. No other

animal can equal the goat in climbing and leaping. It is even said

that some kinds of goats will jump down from a high place and save

themselves by falling on their strong horns. But I do not know if

anybody ever saw this done.

A well-known wild goat is the Ibex of the Alps. This is a splendid

fellow, with long and strong horns but no beard. It used to be very

common, but has been shot at so much that very few are left. The

Chamois of the Alps is an antelope, but is much like the goat, and is

a wonderful jumper. It thinks nothing of leaping over a ravine sixteen

or eighteen feet wide, or over a wall fourteen feet high, or of running

up and down very steep hills. But the hunters have killed most of these

animals also. They think it fine sport to shoot a poor chamois and let

it fall to die in a deep abyss where no one can reach it to get its

body. There are many who do not think this good sport.

Goats, like sheep, were tamed and made natives of the home and farm

very long ago, no one knows how long. The tame kind comes from the wild

goat of Southern Asia, but it has grown smaller in size and its horns

have become shorter. It was kept in Bible times and by the old Greeks

and Romans. These kept it for its milk and the cheese made from it, and

also for its meat. The flesh of the kid, or young goat, is very good,

but that of the old goat has a strong and unpleasant smell which few

people can endure.

[Illustration: The Alpine Ibex. Note the Curiously Knobbed Horns]

In modern times Greece and its islands have more goats than they have

people and there are many in Malta and Corsica, Italy and Spain. They

are not kept largely in the United States, there being about one goat

to every fifty sheep.

The goat will thrive where the ox and the sheep would starve, as on

rocky hill-sides or thin, poor soil. There is little they will not eat,

though you had best not believe that they are fond of old tin cans or

any diet of this kind. One bad habit they have is to gnaw the young

shoots of trees, of which they are very fond. This makes them deadly

to forests, for no young trees can grow where they are kept. The goat

has done much to kill out the trees on the hills of southern Europe

and Asia and thus to destroy the forests of those regions. It is also

fond of the grape-vine, and on this account, in ancient times, it was

sacrificed to Bacchus, the god of wine.

The goat is far from being so dull and stupid an animal as the sheep.

It makes friends with its keepers and is a cunning and curious brute,

though too fond of using its horns. This is often done in play, but in

a way that is not very funny, except to those who look on. It will rear

up and pretend to attack you with its head and horns, but this is only

its way to ask you to play with it. The playful pranks of the kid, or

young goat, are often spoken of in poetry. It is a gay little creature,

fond of capering about in an amusing way.

In fact the goat is not at all stupid and has often shown sense and

cunning. There is a story of a goat that rang a door bell when hungry

for its dinner, by hooking its horn in the wire. Another story is of

two goats that came face to face on a narrow ridge in the rocks. There

was no room to pass and after looking at each other for some minutes

one of them lay down and let the other walk over its body. Two men

could not have done better than that. The long-eared Syrian goat is

trained to do all sorts of tricks. One of these is to balance itself

on a pile of small wooden blocks built up to a height of several feet.

Fancy a sheep doing this!

[Illustration: Milk Goats in the Alps]

If it be asked what are goats kept for, the answer would be, chiefly

for their milk. Goats' milk is very rich and is easy to digest and this

makes it of much use for sick or feeble persons, to whom cows' milk is

at times dangerous. It is very good for consumptive people. In parts of

Europe it is thought that certain diseases of horses and cattle will

not come when goats are with them, so they are often kept in stables

and cow-barns to ward off disease.

Though the goat is a small animal it gives a large quantity of milk,

often from four to six quarts a day and sometimes more than this. There

are cases where twelve quarts a day have been given. The milk is apt to

have a bitter taste and an unpleasant odor, but that comes from the way

the animals are fed and kept. With good care and food, the milk will

lose this taste. The goats of Syria and Palestine give sweet milk and

goats' milk is much used in that part of the world, as it was in the

old Bible times. The Arabs have a great dislike for cows' milk.

The milk of the Syrian goats is also very good for making butter and

cheese, which are said to be of very fine quality. Much butter and

cheese are also made in Europe from goats' milk. These have a special

taste of their own, but are much eaten, for one soon gets used to the

taste.

Goats are made use of for other things than for their milk, butter,

cheese and meat. In early times the goat-skin was used for clothing,

and it still is in some countries. The skins are also used by the

wandering tribes of Asia as vessels to hold drinking water, and also,

tightly sewed and blown out with air, as a sort of boat for crossing or

floating down rivers.

In our days the skins of goats are made into leather. Kid skins are

used for gloves and shoes, and goat skins for morocco, shagreen, and

other fine kinds of leather. The hair is made into ropes which may be

kept in the water without injury; also in England to make wigs for

judges and others, the hair of white goats being used for this. Goats'

hair is also used to make brushes and hats. Knife-handles and other

things are made from the horns, and the fat is better than that of the

ox for candles.

[Illustration: A Pair of Angora Goats]

I must now speak of two kinds of goats of use for their wool. One of

these is the Cashmere goat, from the wool of which the fine cashmere

shawls are made. This goat has a coat of long, stiff hair, but under

this is a very fine, soft, fleecy wool, white or gray in color. Of this

each goat yields from one to one and a half pounds. To make a shawl a

yard long, takes the wool of twenty to twenty-five goats. They were

formerly made in large numbers but in our days few of them are to be

seen.

The other wool-yielder is the Angora goat, well known in this country.

This yields a thick and fine wool, soft and silky and slightly curled.

The color is mostly snow-white, though at times there are dark patches.

It is shed in great locks in summer, but soon grows again. During the

hot weather the goats are constantly washed and combed, to add to the

beauty of their wool. The finest Angora wool, called Mohair, comes from

goats a year old. All its value is lost at six years of age.

IN THE PIG-STY

Let us now take a glance at that grunting brute known to us by the

various names of pig, hog, and swine, which dwells in the pig-sty when

tame and in the forest when wild. Clad in bristles, with thick skin,

short legs, curled-up tail, no neck, and round snout, no one would buy

the pig for a beauty. But in his case use goes ahead of beauty, and who

will say that he is not of use?

Though the pig is a very docile brute in man's care, he is far from

mild and gentle in his wild state. In fact, the wild hog is not an

animal to be played with, nor is it a safe one to fight with. Hardy and

active, fierce and bold as a lion, with a strong head and long, sharp

tusks in his large jaw, the hunter who goes out to seek him in his

lair must do so with care and skill or the pig will get the best of the

hunt.

Most of the beasts of the wildwood let the hog alone. He is not safe

game. But for many long years he has been hunted by man, who likes a

game that has a spice of danger. In the days of old Rome the chase of

the hog was a favorite sport, and it was the same in later times, when

the lords and dukes of England and Germany were very fond of hunting

the wild boar. In our days "pig-sticking" is a common sport of the

English in India.

Mounted on trained horses and armed with long, sharp lances, the

hunters seek to bring down their game from the saddle. But if by any

foul chance the hunter should be thrown from his horse near the hunted

brute his chance for life is not good. The furious brute will rush upon

him, and with one thrust of its strong jaws may rip his body open with

a deadly wound. Great nobles and warriors have met with death in this

base way and the wild hog has held his own bravely among his enemies.

Is this fierce fighter of the forest the same animal as the lazy

grunter of the pig-sty? There is no doubt of it. His long life under

man's care has taken all the fight out of him. Only in one way does he

show his old temper. He is the most obstinate of all the animals we

know. He does not like to be driven and will do his best to go just

where you do not want him to. But he no longer fights to win his way;

he only grunts or squeals and holds back.

[Illustration

From Madeira's "Hunting in British East Africa"

The Wart Hog. An African Tusked Cousin of the Wild Boar of Europe]

Try to drive a pig and you will find this out. You will soon be in a

fret over the stubborn brute. If you want him to go forward you may

find it best to try and drive him backward. An Irishman tells us that

this is the only way to "persuade" a pig.

It takes a Chinaman to make little piggy go the right way, and this is

done by putting him in a basket and carrying him. Two men carry this

basket, hung on a pole. It is a sort of cradle in which piggy goes to

market. The only time the pig can show his obstinate temper is when

he is asked to go into the cradle. He holds back, as usual, but the

cunning Chinaman knows what to do. He takes hold of the pig's tail and

gives it a hard pull as if trying to drag him backward and the stubborn

brute at once rushes forward into his cradle.

The pig will eat almost anything. By nature he is a plant feeder and

in his wild state will roam the forest feeding on plants, fruits, and

roots of all kinds. His hard snout helps him to dig into the ground

in search of favorite roots and his keen sense of smell aids him in

finding them. Thus he likes wet, shady places where the ground is soft

and such plants grow.

In France and Italy the pig is trained to hunt for truffles, a kind of

fungus which grows under ground and which makes good eating. He finds

the truffles by his sense of smell and roots them up with his snout.

In some places dogs are trained to do the same. The truffle found, the

pig's master rescues it for his own table.

Pigs are fond of mast, the name given to the acorns and beech nuts that

cover the ground in the nutting season in oak and beech woods. In

ancient times it was the common practice to fatten the pigs on these

nuts in the proper season.

A hungry pig is not particular about his food. If no plants are to be

had he will feed on worms, snakes, and small animals of any kind. Pigs

in the pen are often fed on animal refuse, all sorts of kitchen slops

being poured into their troughs. They will swallow this stuff greedily

enough, but it is not good for them, or at least for those who eat

their flesh, for this loses in flavor and is not so wholesome as when

they are fed on good vegetable food.

Corn and clover are two of the things the pig likes best. Turn him

out into a clover field and he will have a joyful time of his own in

this rich food and put plenty of good fat on his ribs. He does no harm

to the field if not left there too long and it does good to him. In

fattening pigs corn is freely given. It is not best to give corn alone,

but it makes a good dessert after he has had the run of the pasture or

clover field, and is the best fattener when he is being put in order

for the market.

In visiting a farm the pig-pen is one of the things we are shown. It is

not a pleasant place for a morning call, for the smell is not a sweet

perfume and the mire in which the pig rolls is not nice. We are apt to

go away with the feeling that this animal is a dirty brute.

This is giving poor piggy a bad name which he does not deserve. It is

his owner more than himself that is to blame. If he had his own way he

would be clean enough. Like all thick-skinned animals the pig loves to

wallow in the mire and cover himself with mud to protect him against

insects. But left to himself he will keep his sleeping place clean.

Those who know how to keep pigs soon learn this and supply the animals

with dry and clean places to sleep in.

[Illustration: A Fat Berkshire Hog. A Monarch of the Sty]

Pork, or the flesh of the pig, has long been used as meat. In some

places so much is thought of it that the animal is held to be sacred.

It is the chief flesh food in the South Sea islands, where the animal

was long made a precious sacrifice to the deities. This was also the

case in ancient Greece, and on the island of Crete the hog was a sacred

animal.

No people have ever been fonder of hog meat than the ancient Romans,

and we are told of strange ways by which they gave it a fine flavor.

They fed their pigs with old, dried figs, drenched with wine and honey.

This was to make their livers grow large, pig's liver being a choice

Roman dish.

In cooking the meat they would often serve a pig whole, one side being

boiled and the other side roasted. In dressing the animal for the

tables of the emperors and of rich Romans they would stuff it with such

delicate food as larks and nightingales and serve it with wine and rich

gravies. To eat pork in such ways would seem very odd in our days.

In many countries pork is the favorite meat. We find it so in Germany

and France. In Ireland every peasant raises his pig, which makes its

home in the same hut with him and thinks itself one of the family. In

the end the man often has to sell his pig to help him out of debt, and

looks on the porker as "the gintleman that pays the rent."

But the pig is not eaten all over the world. The Jews and Mohammedans

will not eat it, and look upon it as an unclean animal. As there are

nearly two hundred millions of these people on the earth, there are

at least that many who do not eat pork. But aside from these, pork is

eaten by the great mass of the people of the earth.

The pig is not an American animal. All our pigs, and they are many

millions in number, came from animals brought from Europe. We have

here the peccary, a kind of little pig, very savage and dangerous, as

it goes in herds and attacks every man or other animal it meets. But

it has never been tamed, and we owe our pigs to the Spanish and other

discoverers.

Our swine have grown mighty in numbers, and we pay the Old World for

its gift of the pig by sending it back every year many millions of

dollars' worth of pork, bacon, hams, lard, and other pig products. The

best foreign breeds have been brought here and other breeds have been

produced here, so that the American pig is hard to beat. This country

is the great corn country of the world and great part of its corn is

fed to the pigs of the West, so that we sell much of our corn in Europe

in the form of pork.

Of the many breeds of pigs, that of China is one of the best. The

Chinese are as kind to their pigs as the Irish and they have an animal

worth being good to, one that has been sent abroad to many other

countries. It is noted for its small size, fine head and snout, large

hams and shoulders, compact body, fine bone, hair and skin and sweet,

delicate meat. We have it in some of the best American breeds.

If it be asked what the pig is used for, we should say that there is no

part of it that is not used for some purpose. We eat it under the names

of pork, bacon, ham and lard; its skin is made into leather, which

is much used for saddles; the bristles are used for brush-making.

In fact, when we think of all its uses, there is little left but the

squeal and in our days even that may be used in the phonograph.

[Illustration: The Razor-back Hog of the South. Compare this lean

Beast with the Fat Berkshire Hog given above]

We might look upon the pig as a stupid animal, that lives only to eat

and to be eaten, but this is not the case. It is in fact, a rather

smart fellow in its way and can be taught to do many tricks. If you

have ever seen what are called "learned pigs" you will agree with this.

The pig can do tricks without being taught. We have told how cats and

some other animals can open latches and gate pegs. This the pig can

do as well as any of them. We are told of one pig that was taught to

point game like a pointer dog, and did this so well that she was more

useful than a dog.

[Illustration: Animals of the Farm and Poultry Yard]

Here is a good pig story. A gentleman named Stephen Harding says:--"I

saw an intelligent sow-pig about twelve months old running in an

orchard, going to a young apple tree and shaking it, pricking up her

ears at the same time as if to listen to hear the apples fall. She then

picked the apples up and ate them. After they were all down she shook

the tree again and listened, but as there were no more to fall she went

away." That might not be very smart in a boy, but it is smart in a pig.

[Illustration]

V

THE BIRDS OF THE POULTRY YARD

We have had a long talk about the four-legged home-folks, those

animals, big and little, that aid man in hunting, amuse him as house

pets, carry him on his journeys, pull his carts and wagons, supply him

with milk, butter and cheese, and yield him food for the table, wool

for clothing, skins for leather, and other things for other uses.

This is a long list of the good that man gets from the animals he

tames and feeds. But it is not the whole. There is another class of

animals, two-legged ones this time, with claws instead of hoofs, horny

beaks instead of mouths, feathers instead of hair, and wings in place

of fore-legs. These are the birds of the poultry yard and the lawn,

some of them kept for their eggs, some for their flesh, some for the

splendor of their plumage; some of them very useful, others very

beautiful.

I am sure that you will enjoy a talk about these winged and feathered

creatures. They belong more closely to the home-life of all people than

some of our four-legged friends and helpers, as they are kept close to

the house and fed by its people, not left to feed themselves in the

fields. Best known and most useful among these is the hen or chicken,

our clucking friend of the poultry-yard, who fills our pantries with

eggs and is served on our tables as one of the best liked foods.

THE HEN AND ITS BROOD

The city, we know, is a hotbed of noises, sounds of all sorts troubling

our ears by day and night. We try at times to get rid of them, but

find that not easy to do. The best thing for us is to get used to them

and learn to sleep in spite of them. We need to become like Jock the

miller, who got so used to the roar and clang of his mill that he could

not sleep when it was still.

Some city people find it so hard to get used to the noises of the night

that they go to the country for a quiet sleep. Do they find it? They

may in still winter nights, but in the summer season the country has

noises of its own. As soon as night falls a host of wood insects begin

their endless drone. Then there is the locust and the katydid, with

their shrill calls, and perhaps the whip-poor-will, with its mournful

cry.

Falling to sleep at last, after these sounds have lost their force, no

sooner are the first faint rays of light sent from the east, at three

or four o'clock in the morning, than a new sound invades the ear and

wakens the sleeper with a sudden start.

This is the early waking cock, with his loud "cock-a-doodle-doo."

Standing on his own fortress he sounds his shrill alarm. A dozen more,

near and far, from all points of the compass, take up the tune. The air

is soon full of this strident cock-crow, the signal of the coming of

the sun, until all hope of sleep is at an end, and the pilgrim wishes

himself well back in his city bed. He finds the country not such a

sweet sleep-producer as he hoped.

[Illustration: Feeding the Chickens in the Farm-yard]

In old times people held the cock to be a sacred animal, the herald

of the dawn, the symbol of light and the sun. In later times it was

held to be the wide-awake sentry of the coming day. There are places

where its image is mounted on church steeples on guard over the winds.

Everywhere it is the emblem of vigilance, and this is what the city

sleeper in country beds finds it.

With its stately attitude, its erect head crowned with feathers like

an Indian chief, its showy spread of tail, and its air of pride and

dignity, our cock strides about as the lord of the farm-yard and peals

out his loud "cock-a-doodle-doo" like a challenge to battle. And he is

usually quite ready for battle if any rival cock takes up his challenge.

While the cock thus blows his trumpet blast, the hen finds other work

to do. Her business is to lay eggs, hatch out her brood of funny little

chicks, lead them about the poultry yard in search of worms and other

food, and gather them fussily under her wings when a hawk is seen in

the sky or any danger appears.

Mrs. Hen does not have the ear-splitting voice of Mr. Cock, but she

has a language of her own. There are only a few words in it but each

of them has a meaning. There is the proud cackle with which she tells

the world that she has laid an egg, the lively chuckle with which she

brings her brood to a feast of worms, and the quick cry of danger which

sets them running to the fortress of her wings. Her brood know what all

these chickenwords mean, and it is for their ears they are spoken.

The hen is not as handsome a bird as some other inmates of the poultry

yard, but if we look over all our stock of these birds we will find

some very good-looking ones, these for their showy colors, those for

their fine shape.

Among those that are kept more for ornament than use are the great

Cochin China fowls, stately birds, giants of their kind, of lordly

bearing and fine coloring. They do not lay many eggs and those they do

lay are small. Also they are not very good to eat. But they win respect

through their size and beauty and thus are kept by many as birds of

show.

Another family of giant fowls are the Brahmas. They are smaller than

the Cochin Chinas, but are as handsome, and along with this they lay

many and large eggs and their flesh is very good. So these are kept not

only as birds of show but birds of use.

When we come down to hens of smaller size we find a number of breeds,

not less than forty in all, dwelling in various parts of the world and

many of than good in various ways. Like nearly all our home animals,

America is not the native place of the hen. Neither is Europe, for it

came from Asia, that great continent in which so many animals were

first born. But the hen tribe has spread all over the earth, the

chicken is a household treasure almost from the north pole to the

south, and we can hardly find a country home in any land without its

crowing cock and its clucking hen.

While not native to America, it makes itself very much at home there

and the United States has some excellent breeds of its own, of which we

may be proud. These are the Plymouth Rocks and the Wyandottes, which

have been called the national fowls of America and which can hold their

own with the best breeds of Europe. While we have brought a number of

fine breeds from foreign lands, we have sent these two abroad, and they

have won high praise both for beauty and usefulness.

The Wyandottes are of various colors, the white being best liked;

others are of silver, golden, speckled, black, and partridge-color.

They are splendid egg layers, filling the yearly basket with from a

hundred and fifty to two hundred eggs.

The Plymouth Rock may be speckled, light yellow, or white, and it bears

a strong resemblance to the Wyandotte, except that the latter has a

double comb on its head while the former has a single one.

As the cow is kept for its meat and its milk, and the sheep for its

meat and its wool, so is the hen kept for two purposes, its flesh and

its eggs. Some kinds are bred for the table and they are of great value

in our food-supply. Everybody likes a dish of chicken meat, which is

fine in flavor, easy of digestion, and very good for the weak or sick.

Other kinds are kept for egg-laying and the egg-harvest of the world

is vast in size. It is the nature of the hen to lay eggs enough for a

brood of chicks, sit on them to keep them warm, and take care of the

brood when it appears until the chicks are old enough to scratch for

their own living.

[Illustration: English Dorking Cock and Hen]

But these duties take up much time in which no eggs are laid, and the

farmers who deal in eggs try to prevent the hens from nest-making and

egg-hatching. In this way many hens have been forced to forget what

they were made for and have gone out of the hatching business. These

give all their spare time to egg-laying. Some of them lay more than

two hundred eggs a year. Breeds of this kind are found mostly in the

countries along the Mediterranean.

The number of chickens kept and of eggs laid in the world is far out of

sight. In the United States alone in 1900 there were nearly 250,000,000

chickens, and nearly 1,300,000,000 dozen of eggs were laid. This

made three chickens for each man, woman and child in the country and

seventeen dozen of eggs for each. Since then the number has grown much

larger and the annual egg crop of the world, if it could be heaped up

together, would make a pyramid far larger than the largest in Egypt.

THE GAME COCK AND ITS BATTLES

I do not want to say much about cock-fighting, for it is a cruel sport

and leads to the vice of gambling, through which many lose large sums

of money. But the fighting of game-cocks has a history of its own, and

cannot be quite passed over in our story of the hen and its brood.

The males of all the higher animals are fond of fighting. It is one

of their duties to act as guardians of the family against danger from

outside, while the females look after home affairs. This fighting

temper is very common among animals and men have often made use of

it in getting up battles between animals. We find it in the chicken

family, and cock-fighting has long been enjoyed by sport-loving people.

While all cocks are ready to fight at times, and the winning cock

struts about the poultry yard like a conqueror, there are special

breeds known as Game-cocks which are always ready for a battle and will

fight till victory or death ends the fray. Game-cocks are classed among

the ornamental poultry, for they are of little use as food and their

hens lay few eggs. Yet they are highly thought of in some countries, a

good fighter is treated as a member of the family, and one that has won

several victories is worth much money to his owner.

There are two kinds of fighting cocks, large ones and small ones. Some

of the little kind are not larger than pigeons. They are usually known

as Bantams, from the town of Bantam, in Java, though it is more likely

they came from Japan. These little birds, many of them of only a pound

in weight, are heroes of the poultry yard, for a fighting bantam is

more than a match for a common cock five times its size. The bantam has

been spoken of as "a fine example of a great soul in a little body."

The large game-cocks of Europe come chiefly from France and Belgium,

but good ones may be found in other countries. In fighting, the chief

weapon is the sharp spur on the back of the leg, which they use as a

sort of dagger. It is common to fasten steel spurs, and sometimes even

silver ones, on the leg, and the first blow from one of these may bring

death to an opponent.

Cock-fighting is a very old form of amusement. It was common among the

Greeks and Romans, and was kept up in England for six centuries. It was

even an annual sport at public schools. Laws have been passed against

it at various times, the last in 1849, but it is still practiced now

and then out of sight of the law officers. The same may be said of the

United States. In these times this sport is most common in India, the

Malay Islands, and the Spanish countries of America, where the people

are very fond of it.

The training of cocks to fight and getting the bird ready for the

cock-pit is an art in itself. It needs skill to fasten on the spurs.

Two years old is the best fighting age. When a match is made it is

settled how many birds there shall be on each side and they are

carefully weighed, those within an ounce of each other being matched.

These are said to "fall in." Those that do not fall in are set to fight

what are called "byes." In a Welsh main the cocks fight until only one

is left alive. They are like the famous "Kilkenny cats."

If we should seek a country where cock-fighting may take place under

the laws, the nearest to us is in the isle of Cuba. In the cities of

that island the cock-pit is as popular as the circus is with us. It is

a circular space, with seats around filled with lookers-on and bettors,

for much money is lost and won in one of these fights. The birds are of

a native breed, and are said to be very brave and bold.

In a country under our own rule, the Philippine Islands, cock-fighting

is one of the best liked forms of sport. To take this from the Filipino

would be worse than robbing him of his freedom. Sundays and feast-days

are the times for cock-fighting, and on these dates the cock-pit is

sure to be crowded. When a feast-day arrives, after the siesta, which

comes in the hot hours of the afternoon, crowds of natives may be seen

going to the large bamboo building where the fight is to take place,

many of them with fighting cocks under their arms. A sharp steel spur,

two inches or more in length, is tied to the left leg of each, as an

aid to the spurs given the cock by nature.

These cocks are the great treasures of the natives. The bird is often

more to its owner than his children. He fondly caresses it, and it

eats, crows, and sleeps in his arms. But it is apt to become a nuisance

to the traveller, for he often has to spend the night in the same room

with the family cock, and as it begins to crow about three o'clock in

the morning all sleep after that hour is at an end.

Inside the pit two cocks at a time are matched, and when the hour

for the fight is reached dollars begin to rain into the ring, each

bettor laying a stake on his favorite and throwing his money into

the ring. Then come the words _usada_ ("matched,") and _largo_ ("let

go"), and in an instant the two birds are in and at each other,

fighting as fiercely as two bull-pups. The battle is usually short, a

well-directed blow from the steel spur stretching one of them dead on

the ground.

The name of the winner is now called out and those who have won bets

hurry down into the ring and pick up their own stakes as well as the

sums they have won. This seems a queer method, but the bettors act

honestly. It is safest to do so, for to take more than their due would

likely lead to a knife thrust from these hot-tempered people. Under the

Spanish law fifty dollars was the limit of a bet; but little heed was

paid to this and larger bets were often made.

THE WEB-FOOTED DUCK AND GOOSE

While the hen is not fond of water, the duck and goose could not well

live without it. They are born for swimming, with webs between their

toes that serve as oars. On the land they walk with an ugly waddling

gait, but in the water they are very graceful, and a flock of swimming

ducks or geese is a pretty sight.

In raising ducks the nature of the bird needs to be kept in mind. Water

is its native element and it will not do well on the land. It cannot

be kept in a coop or an inclosed place like fowls, but give it an open

field, with a running stream, and it will ask nothing more. You will

hardly need to feed it, for it knows well how to feed itself.

The duck is not a lazy bird. It will eat almost anything, and is

always waddling about picking up snails, grubs, and insects, or sailing

on the water and thrusting its beak into the soft mud for worms.

[Illustration: Willie and His Pet Ducks]

If the duck farm is large enough and has a pond or stream, the keeping

of ducks is very easy. They are nearly free from disease and need

little looking after. Some kinds of ducks are very handsome, their

colors being bright and varied. The male of the common duck (known as

a drake) has a splendid plumage in its wild state. The head and upper

neck are of deep emerald green. Lower down is a collar of white, and

the lower neck is of dark chestnut. The wings are of a beautiful deep

blue.

The tame bird is not nearly so beautiful. It uses its legs instead of

its wings to get about, so that it almost forgets how to fly. This easy

life and plenty of food helps it to grow and fatten, a fact that makes

it better suited to man's use. It has long forgotten how to build a

nest and almost how to sit on its eggs, so that in some places the hen

is used to hatch out the young ducks. To see a hen going about with a

flock of young ducklings looks odd to us, and when the little waddlers

jump into the water and swim away the hen mother seems sadly scared.

She fears that all her pretty ducklings will be drowned.

When the baby duck gets out of the egg and is ready to begin life it is

shut up for a few days and fed on soft food, such as ground wheat and

barley mixed with hard-boiled egg. After this it is let out into the

field and set free to search for the animal food it needs. In Belgium,

where many ducklings are raised, it is comical to see the breeder

hopping about the field on big wooden shoes, kicking up the earth as he

goes so as to force out the worms for the little strangers to feed on.

It does not take them long to learn how to find food for themselves.