play the role of Nature's scavengers and criminals. They are as numerous
and varied in their methods of working as they are interesting. The only
things they have in common are their profession and their appetites. As
individuals they are ugly, unattractive and apparently void of
personality and charm. Nevertheless, they have an important part to play
in the scheme of things.
One of the most noted of these scavengers is the jackal--the Bohemian of
the desert--whose territory extends from the Gulf of Persia to the
Strait of Gibraltar. He is equally at home in Arabia, Persia, Babylonia,
Syria, Egypt, and the entire North Coast of Africa, and no country from
Barbary to the Cape of Good Hope is ever out of reach of his ghostly
and uncouth howls. He travels only by night, and very rapidly.
When suffering with extreme hunger, he will attack man, but this he will
do only in very rare cases. As he lives entirely upon dead animals, he
is more of a thief and glutton than a robber and murderer. He depends
mostly upon flight and darkness for his protection, and rarely ventures
a direct attack. With all his unlikable habits he is truly valuable as
an agent of public salubrity, and an important officer of the desert
"commission of highways."
These public scavengers, while especially fond of carcasses and putrid
flesh, are not averse to a little fresh meat occasionally. The jackal is
truly the follower or purveyor for the lion, and oftentimes they work
together. Jackals will gather in large numbers near a lion's den and
howl and scream until the lions come forth to disperse them. As soon as
a lion appears they stop their noise, but when he is out of sight, they
immediately begin again. This is done because game is near, and the wise
jackals wish the lion to kill the game. When this is done, and the lions
have eaten all except the bones, the jackals have their small feast of
scraps.
These weird night prowlers have ways all their own, as any one who has
spent a night in a tropical desert can attest. Imagine yourself on the
Syrian plains between Bagdad and Damascus; a small white tent, and a
starry sky: the silence is appalling, and you are just about to have
your first sleep in the desert. Away, away from the distance comes a
mournful, ghostly cry. Suddenly it ceases and like myriads of echoes it
is repeated in hideous intensity--a babel of cries weird beyond
description--so fierce and screeching as to be almost blood-curdling. It
seems to come from all directions and distance out of measure! Vibrating
over the sands and through the rocks, filling the immense void, crying
out as it were for the sphinx, a veritable _de profundis_ of the wastes.
The vultures, who hold the fort during the day have given way to the
night shift, the jackals. These come from all directions; from the caves
in the earth, from among the rocks, from here, there, and from
everywhere to take up their hygienic services where it has been left off
by the day scavengers.
If you were near an oasis in the desert at the close of day, you would
suddenly hear from the hot, barren sands a deep and peculiar sound. It
swells and grows as an approaching wind, growing louder and louder as it
comes nearer. Suddenly by the light of the camp fire, you see myriads of
horrid green eyes, like ghost torches in a graveyard, and hear gnashing
teeth, greedy in anticipation of the garbage you have thrown away.
These hyena hordes are frightfully ugly, but rarely dangerous to man.
They visit every oasis settlement in immense numbers, howling, yelping,
and fighting for any bit of offal they may find. Not a particle of
garbage remains. At the first sign of dawn, they disappear like rats
from a burning building, and seek their caves to digest their ignoble
banquets.
No human street-cleaner could ever excel their work. No matter how large
the garbage pile, no matter how many dead dogs, cats, and donkeys in a
village street, no matter how unspeakable the offal, it all vanishes as
completely as though it had been burned. Not a piece of bone, not a
single chicken feather remains. The natives have no fear of the hyena; a
small child armed with a stick can put to flight a dozen of them. They
are the lowest of cowards, and will flee from their own shadows.
[Illustration: THE MONGOOSE IS A SCAVENGER OF THE WORST TYPE, FEEDING ON
RATS AND MICE AND SNAKES, AND EVEN POULTRY.]
[Illustration: _American Museum of Natural History, New York_
DIPLODOCUS. THE PREHISTORIC ANIMALS, ALSO, UNDOUBTEDLY HAD THEIR
SCAVENGERS AND CRIMINALS.]
In spite of their valuable services, mankind hates the hyenas. This is
probably because of their absolute cowardice, for they will never attack
a living creature unless it is weak from illness. Sometimes they steal a
baby, never killing it outright, but carrying it away to their dens to
starve it to death before mutilating its body. If the courage of this
beast equalled his strength, he would be the despot of the desert. But
he is like his fellow workman, the jackal, cowardly to the last degree.
Neither of them ever attempts to put an enemy to flight by legitimate
means. They resort to fakery: one howls, and the other wrinkles his face
in great anger. The jackal's greatest asset and protection, when he
meets with an enemy, is bluff. He raises his ugly mane, lifts his
ungainly shoulders and assumes the look of a Jason, while in reality he
is as harmless as a mouse, and the smallest child could drive him away
with a twig. His bravery is all pose--a make-believe game--which he
plays over and over again with every one he meets.
A noted American scavenger is the peccary, a species of wild hog, whose
home ranges from Texas to the Pampas of South America. He is a devourer
of creatures more obnoxious than himself. He moves with great rapidity,
is always on the alert, and stops at nothing from mountains to a flowing
river. When he attacks an enemy he makes short work of him.
Bands of these hogs are led by a chief, who is the swiftest and fiercest
of the herd. This aggressive leader is followed by successive lines of
males, behind which come the strong females, while the rear is brought
up by the old, the sick, and the young. In marching, they have the
discipline of a trained army, and turn neither to the right nor to the
left but go straight ahead. If the leader, for any cause, decides to
change his route, the fact is quickly made known in some way to his
followers, and the turn is made at a direct angle, with the accuracy of
a surveyor, and the peccaries go forward again directly toward their new
destination. This is another evidence of a special sense unknown to man.
But whenever a stop is made, or wherever they go, they do their work as
scavengers. Fallen fruits, dead animals, insects, snakes, and worms are
their prey. Thus they are valuable forest sweepers.
Strangely enough, in the animal world, as in the human, the lower
professions are filled with those of less mentality than the higher, and
as a result we find scavengers are nearest allied to criminals. The idea
of one creature killing and eating another seems terrible. Yet they do,
and most often do human beings commit the same crime. Cannibalism among
wild animals is a common occurrence. The demand for food usually causes
one animal to kill and devour another. But in captivity there are other
causes for cannibalism: fear and excitement will oftentimes cause a
mother to destroy her offspring.
It is a case of dog eat dog! Badgers often kill and devour their young.
Wolves, in cases of extreme hunger, will eat their puppies; and Arctic
travellers, when food for their dogs is scarce, have to guard constantly
against the stronger eating the weaker. I once caught a mother field
mouse with her two young and placed them in a cage; the next day the
young had strangely disappeared, but I am not sure that the mother had
eaten them. Hogs, cats, and rabbits will sometimes kill and eat their
young even when food is plentiful. Crocodiles show an occasional
cannibalistic tendency, while water-shrews are very pugnacious and
oftentimes fight until one is killed. The victorious one eats his enemy!
Thus it appears that Nature does not entirely disapprove of cannibalism,
or she would not allow so many of her creatures to practise it.
Theft is a common vice among these various criminals. Monkeys and
baboons form regular bands to rob and plunder. They have a chief who
sees that a sentinel is posted at each dangerous post. The plunderers
then line up in a long row, and the leader gets the booty and passes it
along the line until it reaches the last of the band--the receiver. He
deposits it in a safe place. If the sentry sounds an alarm, they all
flee away, each with as much booty as he can grab. If the enemy presses
too close, all booty is thrown away.
Passion, especially of love, causes much crime among animals as it does
among men. Jealousy burns fiercely even in the breast of a beast. It is
a common heritage of the fiercest lion and the gentle gazelle alike, and
is capable of perpetrating the most dreadful crimes.
There are types of ugly dispositioned animals, who are always in a
ferocious mood, just like certain ill-tempered human beings, who believe
everything and everybody is trying to injure them. The common shrew, for
example, is noisy, bold and fussy. He seems to delight in calling
attention to himself by his grunty, squeaky voice. He advertises himself
as a bad animal; and bad he is, for his terrible odour prevents other
animals from coming near. Horses and mules are at times quite ferocious,
and kick and bite, with no idea of obedience or kindness. They, of
course, like our human criminals, are mentally unbalanced. Skilled horse
trainers can detect at a glance a criminally inclined horse.
Rogue elephants are common in India. Even their trumpeting shows a
ferocity and unbalance that terrifies the natives. Often these criminal
elephants are sufferers of mental ailments. A respectable, law-abiding
elephant herd will not allow a thug or rogue to live in their midst.
They recognise him as dangerous for their society, and combine to force
him entirely away from their homes.
Certain criminal animals have a strange antipathy for members of their
own tribe, or for other kinds of animals. Such is common among monkeys,
cats, horses, and dogs, and many terrible crimes are committed because
of these antipathies. Every one has witnessed the terror of a dog that
has been insulted, and elephants will carry an old grudge for fifty
years and finally seek the most terrible revenge.
Often violent outbursts of temper on the part of a tame animal are
caused by a change in the temperature or atmosphere. Even animals have
days when they feel ugly and grouchy. Those that live in very hot
climates are especially subject to fits of rage and anger. The approach
of an electrical storm causes many of them to lose their self-control:
herds of cattle often stampede just preceding a cyclone. They, like
human savages, seem terrorised at the unknown. Not a few wild animals
have actually run in the way of an automobile or passing train to
attempt to stop it. Fear and rage are often caused by the appearance of
a curious object. A bull, for example, when he sees a red rag, will
madly rush at it, seemingly altogether oblivious of the man holding it.
The matadors are safe only because the bull is insane from rage.
Many scientists of fame, like Lombroso, have demonstrated that strong
drink is the cause of much crime among animals, the same as it is among
men. In the pastures of Abyssinia the sheep and goats get on regular
"drunks" by eating the beans of the coffee plants. They fight and
carouse at such times like regular topers. Elephants are incorrigible
when drunk, while dogs and horses have to be put in strait-jackets to
prevent them from killing themselves.
Wicked animals always seek their own kind, and often band together for
evil purposes. Figuier tells of three beavers that built for themselves
a nice little home near a stream, and they had as a neighbour a
respectable hermit beaver. The three called on their neighbour one day,
and he received them cordially, and hastened to return their visit, when
they pounced upon him and slew him, like human murderers, who had
trapped their victim.
From all these we learn that Nature is filled with life-saving and
life-furthering adaptations. Just as in the human drama we find deceit,
disguise, mask, trickery, bunco and bluff, all forms of cheating and
clever deceptions, so it is precisely the same in the animal world,
though man is little informed on Nature's real ways.
XIV
AS THE ALLIES OF MAN
_"Who, after this, will dare gainsay
That beasts have sense as well as they?
For me--could I the ruler be--
They should have just as much as we,
In youth, at least. In early years,
Who thinks, reflects, or even fears?
Or if we do--unmeaning elves--
'Tis scarcely known e'en to ourselves.
Thus by example clear and plain,
We for these poor creatures claim
Sure sense to think, reflect, and plan,
And in this action rival man:
Their guide--not instinct blind alone,
But reason, somewhat like our own!"_
The wonderful world in which we live is full of animal life. In the
great forests, under the ground, on the steep mountainsides, in the
depths of the oceans, rivers, streams, from the frigid north to the
torrid south, in the parched deserts, are animals of every size, colour,
and form, all of which are, in their general form, adapted to their
peculiar places in nature. Their lives and habits undeniably demonstrate
proofs of divine wisdom, intelligence, and beneficence. In fact they
show an aptitude in many arts and sciences second only to that shown in
man.
The reason that animals are often held in such low esteem by the world
of science, is because people are apt to look upon them as natural
mechanisms and overlook what they are doing and feeling. The propounders
of false statements which attribute every act of an intelligent
animal--second only to man and his faithful ally--as due to instinct
only, deal with metaphysical reasoning. They have never considered the
innumerable and irrefutable facts of animal life which no acuteness of
analysis and pure thinking can ever explain. Most of these narrow,
bookish men deny to animals capabilities which every country schoolboy
knows they possess. It is no exaggeration to say that animals exist
which sing, dance, play, speak a language, build homes, go to school and
learn, wage warfare, protect their homes and property, marry, make laws,
build moral codes, in fact, do everything that is generally attributed
to man.
In comparing man and animals scientists are prone to ascribe to man as a
whole the faculties which only the best trained and most talented
possess. They fail to consider our cannibal brethren, such as are found
among the Dyaks on the Island of Borneo, whose chief articles of
adornment in the house are heads of murdered men, and whose savage and
fiendish ways would put to shame a civilised animal. They forget how
long man lived on this earth before he even learned to make fire by
chipping flints.
Since the beginning of time animals have been the friends and allies of
man. From the very earliest ages they have in innumerable ways been
associated with historical events, and with the laws, customs,
superstitions, and religions of all nations of the universe. Love,
devotion, gratitude, the sense of duty, as well as all the lower
passions of hatred, revenge, distrust and cunning are their heritage.
Only an egotist who has known them in books only, and knows nothing of
their mentality and brain power, would dare say that they are governed
solely by instinct. Cases of animal suicide, following some deep
disgrace among them, are not uncommon.
From the Bible we learn that God frequently employed animals as agents
to dispense His providence. Bullocks, sheep, goats were used by the Jews
in their religious services, while a disobedient prophet was killed by a
lion. Balaam was rebuked for his cruelty by an ass; and David even
called upon the animals to aid in praising Jehovah! That we may learn
real gratitude for common mercies Isaiah says: "The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib," etc. When the city of Nineveh was
threatened, God had pity on it, because there were many cattle there.
The Saviour compared his own earthly condition with that of certain
animals: "The foxes have holes," etc. He called himself the 'Good
Shepherd,' and his followers were sheep who knew his voice. John the
Baptist referred to Him as the 'Lamb of God'; while John, the beloved
disciple, when on the Isle of Patmos, saw the "throne of God in heaven,
and before it a lion, a calf, a man, and a flying eagle."
The first beginnings of co-operation between men and animals must have
begun by the approach of certain less timid animals, which felt that
better conditions for them and more food could be obtained near human
habitations, and perhaps, more protection from dangerous animals. Or it
may have begun through the stupidity of certain animals who failed to
realize the danger of man's proximity.
It seems that the secret ambition of all animals is to become the allies
of man. This is demonstrated by the fact that most of them have gone
near the villages and towns, and, consequently, there are comparatively
few remaining in the heart of the big forests. Under the true state of
conditions man should live in harmony with these animal brothers, with
mutual trust and respect existing between them. That would mean, of
course, that man would have to show a little more kindness to them. For
while he is their true sovereign, he abuses the privileges of his
sovereignty in untold ways, and up to the present time only a few
animals, like the dog and horse, have been fully recognized as his
allies.
All the others, with few exceptions, have shown a desire to become more
closely united with man, and yet during the thousands of years of man's
rulership over the beasts, he has been able to make allies of only about
sixty. This regrettable fact speaks for itself--showing that man has
long abused his trust.
Warfare, as it is waged to-day, demonstrates that notwithstanding man's
vast number of scientific aids, animals are still invaluable. The
innumerable mechanical and electrical devices unknown ten years ago,
such as enormous rapid-firing guns, walking "Willies," wireless
machines, traction engines, smokeless and noiseless powder,
silent-sleepers and tear-bombs, all of these have greatly increased
man's power of offence and defence, yet with all these ultra-modern
improvements, animals are absolutely essential in waging a successful
war.
In military circles there is an ever-increasing demand for well-trained
army horses, sound in mind and body and educated in modern campaigning.
Above all, an army horse must be dependable, must love his
soldier-master and must know absolute obedience to orders. Every army
horse has to pass an examination and prove his worth before he is
enlisted into the service.
The largest of the mountain guns used in Italy against the Austrians
were drawn up the steep mountains by mules. Another 75-millimetre gun
for mountain warfare is taken to pieces, into four parts, and each piece
is separately packed on a mule.
The United States cavalry has the best trained war horses in the world;
many of them actually understand the complicated commands of their
masters. These horse soldiers have the insignia, U. S., branded on the
hoof of the left forefoot, and the other animals in camp, on the
shoulder.
When a horse arrives at a regiment he is assigned to a troop according
to colour, size, weight and mental efficiency, and later he is
permanently assigned to a man. Under no conditions is he interchanged or
even ridden by another than his master, and it is astonishing the
tremendous affection that oft-times springs up between the two; in many
instances horses have been known to seek out their masters among
hundreds of soldiers.
On the European battlefields, near which there are few or no railroads,
animals have been the principal means of transportation, elephants,
camels, horses, mules and oxen being chiefly used for this purpose. The
Italian armies have used numerous teams of mountain-trained bullocks to
draw loads up the mountains, and, while they cannot ascend roads as
steep as those which the mules climb, they are very valuable for heavy
loads. These bullocks work faster than an army mule, for a mule will
never hurry. As the old darkey once said, "De mule warn't born fer to
hurry; not even a torpedo would make him move one step farster!"
Elephants have been used to a small degree in the armies of Europe.
While they are splendid workmen, they are dangerously subject to
stampede, and one stampeding elephant can do much harm in an army.
The British army has used quite a few trained elephants from India in
their ranks. They are especially employed to rout the enemy from small
forests. Breaking through bushes, crushing underbrush, and pulling up
small trees is their specialty. They make splendid bulwarks for
soldiers, and when an army is marching through a forest, are invaluable
in clearing the way. A British officer declared that one trained
elephant is more valuable than a half-dozen traction engines.
Far the most interesting and curious use to which an animal is subjected
is the use of camels chosen and trained because of their strange
colouring and height. Small groups of them have been stationed among
clumps of acacia trees with a spy mounted on the animal's neck. This is
the safest place a person could be, for the camel or, in like manner,
the giraffe, standing with only his head above the small trees, looks
precisely like a bit of the foliage in the distance.
Camels are especially good for desert warfare, because they can go
without water so long and can easily carry loads weighing from 400 to
500 pounds. In the last Afghan campaign the British lost over 50,000
camels and in the Great War they have had more than 60,000 in army
service in Egypt. Camels are especially used for transportation
purposes. The British capture of Jerusalem was greatly aided by these
desert allies. Large numbers of oxen have been used in the French army.
They do not balk at autos and know no fear of shells.
One of the greatest allies of the animal kingdom in warfare is the dog.
These allies are trained to aid relief parties on the battlefields, and
many of the ambulance men have their splendidly trained dogs for seeking
out wounded soldiers among the dead. They are also trained as guards and
watch-dogs and they become marvellously clever when used near the firing
lines. They carry water in the trenches and are trained in packs to
dismount enemy motorcyclists by pulling them from their machines. Dogs
also make splendid scouts, and excellent and reliable messengers when
not required to go too far.
These faithful friends of man, according to Buffon, are far more easily
taught than man, and more easily led "than any of the other animals, for
not only does the dog become educated in a short time, but even adapts
himself to the habits of those who control him." According to
circumstances, a dog may become a soldier, messenger, water-carrier, or
guard.
[Illustration: THE ESQUIMO-DOG IS MAN'S GREATEST FRIEND IN THE FAR
NORTH.]
[Illustration: American Museum of Natural History, New York
CHIPMUNKS ARE AMONG THE MOST EASILY TAMED OF MAN'S WILD FRIENDS, AND
THEY EVEN SEEM FOND OF HUMAN COMPANIONSHIP.]
Not the least among the uses of war dogs is the curious practice of
sending them into the enemies' lines of cavalry to convey fire in order
to terrorise the horses and throw them into confusion. This practice has
been quite common in the past. Each dog is dressed in a cuirass of
leather and on his back is carefully strapped a pot of boiling, blazing
tar. Nothing so terrorises horses as the sight of approaching fire.
A small but valuable ally to man is the ferret. This little creature has
come into prominence more particularly during recent years, when the rat
infested trenches have made his services invaluable. These Hun-like
rats, devouring and devastating in their thirst for human blood, would
have forced the abandonment of many a front line trench but for the aid
of these trained ferrets, thousands of which have been daily employed on
the battle fronts.