In

ite domestics, companions in amusements, assistants in all laborious exercises, and participate the habitation, the bed, and the table of their masters. As their nature is improved by the gentleness of their education, by the kind treatment they receive, and the perpetual attention bestowed on them, they acquire sensibility and intelligence, and perform actions which one would not expect from them. The Hottentots train oxen to war. all their armies there are considerable troops of them, which are easily governed, and are let loose by the chief when a proper opportunity occurs. They instantly dart with impetuosity upon the enemy. They strike with their horns, kick, overturn, and trample under their feet everything that opposes their fury. They run ferociously into the ranks, which they soon put in the utmost disorder, and thus pave the way for an easy victory to their masters. They are likewise instructed to guard the flocks, which they conduct with dexterity, and defend them from the attacks of strangers and of rapacious animals. They are taught to distinguish friends from enemies, to understand signals, and to obey the commands of their masters. When pasturing, at the smallest signal from the keeper, they bring back and collect the wandering animals. They attack all strangers with fury; which renders them a great security against robbers. These brackelays, as they are called, know every inhabitant of the kraal, and discover the same marks of respect for all the men, women, and children, as a dog does for those who live in his master's house. These people may, therefore, approach their cattle with the greatest safety. But if a stranger, and particularly a European, should use the same freedom, without being accompanied by one of the Hottentots, his life would be in imminent danger.' The influence of education is, however, by no means confined to the animals of the higher orders. Reptiles, Fishes, and even Insects have also been trained and domesticated. In Ceylon, the deadly Cobra has been sometimes tamed and trained to perform certain services. He has been kept as an inmate of the house, moving about freely with the members of the family. In one household, near Negombo, a wealthy individual, who kept large sums of money at home, employed them instead of dogs, as protectors. They glided about his apartments, a terror to thieves,

but harmless to all others. Fishes, toads, and spiders, have been taught to come at a given signal for food, and fleas have been educated to endure a harness, and perform various curious evolutions.

Wonderful accounts have been given of the serpent-charmers of the East, and it has been generally believed that they have some peculiar power hereditary in certain families, by which they are able to handle and play with, and even to irritate, the most venemous of the race without injury. That this is constantly done there is no doubt, but there have been different opinions as to the mode. Some writers have asserted that the poisonous fangs are always extracted before the animals are handled. An exhibition of this kind was given at the Zoological Gardens in London a few years ago, and the disclosures of the performers appear to favor this view of the question. The following brief sketch is condensed from a published and apparently authentic narrative. The exhibitors were an old man and his son-in-law Mohammed, a mere lad of sixteen. "The lad, with his arms bared, first seizes by the tail a large Cobra de Capello, a hooded snake of the most pofsonous kind, and holding him at arm's length allows him to writhe about for some time, till he is in a state of high irritation. He is pinched and teased in various ways, and repeatedly strikes at the hands, arms, and legs of his assailant, but the blows are all avoided with great agility. Another larger and fiercer is then seized in the same way, and is buffeted about the head with the open hand till he is quite furious and seizes the lad on the arm; but, merely wiping the spot, the boy proceeds to tie the animal about his neck, and also into a variety of knots. He then tells him to be quiet, and lays him on his back, gently stroking his neck and skin. He remains as if quite dead, and a third is carried through the same process, and then placed in the bosom next the skin, where he coils quite around the body of the exhibitor, and is withdrawn only with great difficulty and in a state of great irritation.”

Upon a strict examination of the persons making this exhibition, they admitted that the fangs were always previously removed, and that without this precaution no one would venture upon such freedom with these deadly reptiles. They described

the manner of catching and preparing their subjects, and it is in this part of the process that the peculiar skill and courage of the serpent-charmers is shown.

But, in contradiction to this statement, we have the assertion of many travellers who have witnessed these exhibitions in the East, that the fangs are not extracted, that they have examined the animals thus exhibited, and that, at the same time that they were thus completely under the influence of the charmers and incapable of doing them any injury, their bite was as destructive as ever to the life of other animals exposed to them. Dr. John Davy, in his account of Ceylon, is certain that the only charm exerted is that of courage and confidence. Bruce, the celebrated Egyptian traveller, gives his testimony to the same effect, and more lately Tennent confirms the same statement.

CHAPTER XIII. (S.)

OF THE ARTIFICES OF ANIMALS.

"THE Monkey tribes are among the most remarkable of animals, for their various indications of cunning, artifice, and even intelligence. Others may sometimes exhibit a greater amount of actual, practical wisdom, but there are none which present a nearer approach in certain respects to the human character, or a more close imitation of some of the lower faculties, propensities, and manners of our own species. Their peculiarities will be best illustrated by a variety of examples.'

Margraaf informs us, that the monkeys in Brazil, while they are sleeping on the trees, have uniformly a sentinel to warn them of the approach of the tiger or other rapacious animals; and that, if ever this sentinel is found sleeping, his companions instantly tear him in pieces for his neglect of duty. For the same purpose, when a troop of monkeys are committing depredations on he fruits of a garden, a sentinel is placed on an eminence, who,

when any person appears, makes a certain chattering noise, which the rest understand to be a signal for retreat, and immediately fly off and make their escape.

'Mr. Parkyns in his late travels in Abyssinia states many interesting particulars concerning them.

""You see them," he says, "quarrelling, making love; mothers taking care of their children, combing their hair; and the passions, jealousy, anger, love, are as distinctly marked as among men. They have a language apparently as intelligible to one another as ours; and in this they scold at, and dispute with, each other, as earnestly as we do.

"The monkeys, especially the cynocephali, have their chiefs, whom they implicitly obey, and a regular system of tactics in war, pillaging, robbing orchards, &c. These forays are managed with the utmost regularity. A tribe coming down to feed from their village in the mountains, which is usually a cleft in the face of some cliff, brings with it all its members. The elders of the tribe, distinguished by the quantity of mane which covers their shoulders, take the lead, peering cautiously over the precipices, and pausing at each elevation to take a survey of the road before them. Others are posted as scouts, in flank and rear, who are equally vigilant, and call out at times, as if to keep order among the motley group that constitutes the main body, or to give notice of some real or fancied danger.

"The main body is composed of the young people of the tribe and the females. The small children are carried on their mothers' backs. Unlike the dignified march of the leaders, the rabble go along in a most disorderly manner, trotting on and chattering heedlessly, trusting entirely to the vigilance of their scouts. The young linger behind to pick berries from some tree; the mothers delay now and then, to feed, or caress, or dress the hair of their offspring; and the younger females, apparently provoked by each other's cries or gestures, pinch, scratch, and bite one another, till a loud bark of command from one of the chiefs calls them to order. A single cry of alarm makes them all halt and remain on the alert; till another. in a different tone reassures them, and they then proceed on their march.

"Arrived at the cornfields, the scouts take their position on

the eminences all around, while the remainder of the tribe collect provision with the utmost expedition. They fill their cheekpouches as full as they can hold, and then tuck the heads of corn under their armpits. Now there must be afterward a division of the collected spoil according to some established principle, or else how do the scouts feed? for they never quit for a moment their post of duty till it is time for the tribe to return, or till some indication of danger renders a retreat necessary.

""They show great sagacity in searching for water, discovering at once the places where it is most readily found in the sand, and then digging for it with their hands, just as men would, and relieving one another in the work if the labor prove too great." 'The following anecdote serves to illustrate their singular adroitness and cunning. A showman, who had several to exhibit, gave Mr. Parkyns an opportunity of witnessing the tricks of one of them, who was a most dexterous thief, and managed always to steal food enough for his own support. His keeper led him to a spot near a date-seller who was sitting upon the ground with his basket beside him, and then put him through his usual evolutions. He kept a watchful eye upon the fruit; but so completely did he disguise his intentions, that a careless observer would never have noticed it. He did not at first appear to care about approaching the basket, but gradually brought himself nearer and nearer, till he got quite close to the owner. In the middle of one of his feats, he suddenly started up from the ground, on which he was lying stretched out like a corpse, and, uttering a cry as of rage or pain, fixed his eyes full at the face of the date-seller, and then, without moving the rest of his body, stole as many dates as he could hold in one of his hind hands, and popped them into his cheek-pouches, his victim knowing nothing of his loss, till informed of it by the laugh of the bystanders at his expense, in which he heartily joined. At this moment a boy in the crowd pulled the animal. sharply by the tail. Conscience-stricken, as it were, he imagined the insult to have come from the man he had robbed, and fell upon him at once with great fury, and would have bitten him severely, except for the interference of his master. "Their strong imitative propensity was exhibited to Mr. Parkyns in a curious and rather costly manner.

He had been observed