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developments of their capacities, for elephants are extremely active in their native haunts, and climb steep rocks very well. They usually retain their tameness when they grow up, but their docility is the result of their natural disposition, their long association with their mother, and their social habits; it is not due to domestication. Even the Indian elephant is a tamed rather than a domesticated animal.

I have had little personal experience with young rodents except with pet rabbits, which, like most boys, I used to keep. These creatures have been so changed by domestication that their qualities are not interesting. It is certain, however, that the young of all rodents are easily tamed; every one has seen or heard of tame rats and mice, hares, and squirrels. They recognize their owners, like to snuggle against them, to climb on them, and readily follow them about. They show in every way a willingness to accept from human beings the attentions they would. naturally receive from their mothers.

Young animals born in captivity are no more easy to tame than are those which have been taken from the mother in her native haunts. If they remain with the mother, they very often grow up even shyer than the mothers themselves. Tameness is never inherited. The facts show that taming is almost entirely a transference to human beings of the confidence and affection that a young animal would naturally give its mother. Domestication is different, and requires breeding a race of animals in captivity for many generations, and gradually weeding out those in which youthful tameness gives way to the wild instincts of adult life.

The degree to which tameness can be carried depends on the natural habits of the animals concerned, on their intelligence, and on their instincts. Taming should be no more than taking advantage of the natural instincts and guiding them in a slightly new direction.

It is quite true that animals of high intelligence can be trained to do many feats entirely outside their natural range. If the animals have good memories, and their trainer uses punishment freely, he can produce remarkable results; but I cannot understand how persons who think that they are fond of animals can

endure seeing most of these tricks. A chimpanzee in evening dress, lighting a cigarette and drinking brandy on a stage, is a shameful abuse of man's power over the ape. Lions, tigers, and polar bears snarling in a pyramid, with the whip cracking and the iron bar and loaded pistol ready to the hand of their trainer, can amuse only very stupid people.

CLASS ACTIVITIES

1. Find passages which explain the difference between taming and do-
mesticating animals. Read aloud the two sentences which best
show this difference. Tell in your own words what the difference is.
2. Mention carnivores, ungulates, and rodents not named in this selec-
tion. To which species do most domesticated animals belong?
3. Is either tameness or domestication hereditary? Prove your answers
by reading sentences in the selection.

4. Would Mitchell regard as tame the lions of Miss Heliot or Captain
Bonavita? Read the paragraph in which you find the answer.
Would he approve the performances they give? Tell where you
find the answer.

5. Does Mitchell consider the butterfly and carp mentioned in the fourth paragraph as tame? As domesticated?

6. Name the kinds of animals which are easiest to tame. What is the best period in their lives in which to tame them? Why?"

7. Tell about your pets and your experiences in taming animals.

8. Volunteer reports: Secure information, if necessary, from the references given below:

a. Why I like cats better than dogs.

b. How the dog proves himself a friend to man. c. Present-day methods of training wild animals. d. Interesting animals at the Zoo.

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ADDITIONAL READINGS. 1. "Cats and Dogs," W. L. Phelps, in Scrib-
ner's Magazine, 75: 116-120. 2. 'Big Business' Recognizes the Dog," in
Literary Digest, 80: No. 3, 52-55. 3. "The Cat that Walked by Him-
self," R. Kipling, in Just So Stories, 197–221. 4. "A Family of City-Bred
Hawks," S. H. Chubb, in Scribner's Magazine, 71: 622–629.
5. "Our
Friends, the Bees," A. I. Root and E. R. Root, in National Geographic
Magazine, 22:675-694. 6. “The Honey Flow," D. L. Sharp, in Harper's
Magazine, 145: 479-487. 7. “How Wild Animals Are Captured," F. C.
Bostock, Training of Wild Animals, 109-119. 8. "How Wild Animals
Are Taught Tricks," ibid., 154-165. 9. Behind the Scenes with Wild
Animals. io. "Lions," E. Velvin, Wild Animal Celebrities, 1–19.

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3. WHAT THE EARLIEST MEN DID FOR US

SMITH BURNHAM

Men have always needed food, shelter, clothing, and means of protection against the dangers around them. Our early ancestors needed many thousand years to learn how to provide themselves with these simple necessities of life.

At first men lived upon the roots, herbs, wild berries, and fruits in the forest. Sometimes they found birds' nests in the trees and ate the eggs or the young birds. Occasionally they found a dead bird or animal and thus learned to like the taste of flesh. They hunted for shellfish by the seashore and caught fish in the streams and lakes. When they began to kill the smaller animals with stones or clubs, they became meat eaters. When men had learned how to make knives, spears, and bows and arrows, they could kill the larger animals and get a better supply of food.

For a long time all food was eaten raw, because the use of fire was unknown. We do not know how man discovered fire. He may have kindled it first from a tree set aflame by the lightning. By and by he found that a spark could be produced by striking two stones together in the right way or that he could make a fire by rubbing together two pieces of wood.

The making of fire was one of the most wonderful inventions in the world. Men could now cook their food. At first they roasted bits of meat before the blaze or in the hot ashes. Later, when they had learned how to make vessels that would hold water, they began to boil food over the fire.

For a long time men procured their food by hunting, trapping, and fishing. During this time they began to capture and tame the young of some of the wild animals. Probably the dog was the first domestic animal. The cow was also domesticated at a very early period. Man used her meat and milk for food and her skin for clothing. From her bones and horns he made tools and implements. No other animal has been more useful to him. The goat and the sheep, the hog and the horse, were all tamed by primitive man. After these animals had been domesticated by hunters and trappers, some men became shepherds and herds

men, and wandered from place to place with their flocks and herds in search of the best pastures.

Presently another step was taken toward civilized life. Men had long known that the seeds of some of the wild grasses and plants were good to eat. Now some one noticed that if these seeds were sown they sprang up and brought forth many more seeds. Then some one discovered that the seeds grew better and yielded a more abundant crop if the ground were broken up and made soft before the seed was sown. Because of these discoveries some men began to be farmers. By cultivation, the wild grasses which grew in the fields or beside the rivers were developed into wheat, oats, barley, and rice, the great cereals of the world.

When men began to procure their food by cultivating the soil it became necessary for them to remain in the same locality in order to gather the harvest when it ripened. They could no longer wander from place to place as they had done when they were only hunters or shepherds. They now began to live in permanent villages and to cultivate the land lying near by. In this way the beginning of farming led to a settled life and the making of permanent homes.

Probably the earliest men had only such shelter from the rain and protection from wild animals as the trees gave them; after a time they began to live in dens and caves. Still later they built huts by bending young trees together, weaving branches between them, and covering the whole structure with leaves and bark. When the hut was built of poles covered with the skins of animals, it became a tent. Many of the people who wandered from place to place with their flocks and herds dwelt in tents.

When men settled near the fields that they were beginning to cultivate, they built permanent homes of stone plastered with mud or of clay bricks dried in the sun. They covered the roofs with brush or timber, then added fireplaces and rude chimneys to these simple houses, and in other ways gradually improved their dwellings.

The first clothing was probably made from the leaves of trees or from grasses matted together. When man became a good hunter he wore the skins of the animals that he killed. The ancestors of all of us were once clad in skins. The women of those

early days used to cure the skins of small animals by drying them. They made garments by sewing the skins together with needles of bone, using the sinews of animals for thread. Still later, women learned to spin yarn from wool sheared from the sheep and from the thread of the flax which they were beginning to raise. The next step was to weave the yarn and the thread into woolen and linen cloth.

Because early man had the mind to invent and the hands to make the weapons, tools, and utensils which he needed he was able to make such progress in procuring food, shelter, and clothing.

Man's first weapon was a club. A stone with which he used to crack nuts was probably his earliest tool. At first he simply found stones of the right shape for his purpose; then he began to chip a piece of flint until it had a rough edge. Now he had a hatchet as well as a hammer. Because he held this hatchet in his hand it has been called a fist-hatchet. A great many of these fist-hatchets have been found. In the course of time he learned how to use thongs of rawhide to bind handles to his fist-hatchets. Now he had axes and spears.

A great day in the long climb toward civilized ways of living arrived when some unknown inventor made the first bow. With arrows tipped with sharp bits of stone, man could now kill the larger animals. Stone knives were used to skin the game.

By using pieces of flint with rough edges as saws and files, men began to make tools of horn, bones, and shells. They now possessed daggers and hammers of horn and awls and needles of bone.

The next great forward step in human progress was taken when men discovered metals and began to use them. Copper was the first metal used, but it was soon found that it was too soft for making many articles. Presently it was discovered that if a little tin were mixed with the copper it made a harder metal called bronze.

Iron, the most useful of all the metals, is much harder than bronze and better suited in every way for making tools and implements. Man needed a long time to learn how to use iron, because it is not so easy to work as copper and bronze. When he

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