MAN AND BEAST.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 46, 23 February 1929, Page 8

MAN AND BEAST.

Men have always been interested in what their brothers in the animal family think about and how their minds work. Many books, fiction and fact, have been written on the subject. All sorts of animal stories, from the "Jungle Books" and "Tho Call of the Wild" to "Lady Into Fox" and "Bambi," find eager readers. Alfred Poizat in the "Revuo Bleue" has written an interesting article, "Reflections on the Mind of Beasts and the Human Mind." Any dog, he says, has a clear conception of what his mission oil earth is—to attach himself to the master that destiny has given him, to guard him and his house, to follow him in his walks, his hunts or his wars. He is even keen enough to discern who is the real master in a house. If ho sees that the man is not, ho gives his allegiance to the mistress in order that the proper discipline of the house may not bo challenged.

When animals display such a'high grade of intelligence it seems strange to many that they should not be able to talk. M. Poizat rather asks, "Why should they talk ?" Put yourself, says he, in the place of a dog. A cry of joy, a groan, a shout of alarm, more or less intense, more or less prolonged—doesn't that convey all that is necessary in most cases? To be vigilant, to learn the meaning of every change of expression, of every slightest inflection, is enough to give the dog a thorough understanding of his master. He has no need for words. Moreover, the technical business of dissociating an action from the being who performs it is beyond him. To distinguish the verb from the subject is more than he can manage. It would be interesting to know what the master of Fellow—the dog which boasts a vocabulary of 140 words—would have to say to this.

While the French writer displays a friendly sympathy for all dumb animals ancl quotes cases of the loyalty and devotion of cats, dogs, deer and rabbits, he apparently has no fondness for monkeys. Everything about the monkey, ''thanks to his unhappy genius for imitation, becomes a horrid buffoonery which is a perpetual derision of man and of his most noble vsentiments." Monkeys are not liked by other animals. The creatures which are most attracted to man showtile greatest repugnance for the monkey tribe. The physical resemblance between man and monkey, M. Poizat consolingly remarks, may be after all onlv fortuitous.