The Minute, However, The Latter Has Reached
The Flock, He Turns Round And Begins To Bark, And Then All
The House-Dogs Take Very Quickly To Their Heels.
In a similar
manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will scarcely
ever (and I was told by some never) venture to attack a
flock guarded by even one of these faithful shepherds.
The
whole account appears to me a curious instance of the pliability
of the affections in the dog; and yet, whether wild or
however educated, he has a feeling of respect or fear for
those that are fulfilling their instinct of association. For
we can understand on no principle the wild dogs being
driven away by the single one with its flock, except that they
consider, from some confused notion, that the one thus
associated gains power, as if in company with its own kind.
F. Cuvier has observed that all animals that readily enter
into domestication, consider man as a member of their own
society, and thus fulfil their instinct of association. In
the above case the shepherd-dog ranks the sheep as its fellow-
brethren, and thus gains confidence; and the wild dogs,
though knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but
are good to eat, yet partly consent to this view when seeing
them in a flock with a shepherd-dog at their head.
One evening a "domidor" (a subduer of horses) came
for the purpose of breaking-in some colts. I will describe
the preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been
mentioned by other travellers.
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