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Domestication of Animals
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please the Indians who presented them. When I came to Cuzco, I remember there were
some remains of places where they kept these creatures. One was the serpent conservatory,
and another where they kept the pumas, jaguars, and bears.”
[Syria and Greece.]—I could have said something on Solomon’s apes
and peacocks, and could have quoted at length the magnificent order
given by Alexander the Great (Pliny, Nat. Hist., viii. 1 6) towards
supplying material for Aristotle’s studies in natural history; but enough
has been said to prove what I maintained, namely, that numerous cases
occur, year after year, and age after age, in which every animal of note is
captured and its capabilities of domestication unconsciously tested.
I would accept in a more stringent sense than it was probably intended
to bear, the text of St. James, who wrote at a time when a vast variety and
multitude of animals were constantly being forwarded to Rome and to
Antioch for amphitheatrical shows. He says (James 7), “Every kind of
beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and
hath been tamed of mankind.”
I conclude from what I have stated that there is no animal worthy of
domestication that has not frequently been captured, and might ages ago
have established itself as a domestic breed, had it not been deficient in
certain necessary particulars which I shall proceed to discuss. These are
numerous and so stringent as to leave no ground for wonder that out of the
vast abundance of the animal creation, only a few varieties of a few
species should have become the companions of man.
It by no means follows that because a savage cares to take home a
young fawn to amuse himself his family, and his friends, that he will
always continue to feed or to look after it. Such attention would require a
steadiness of purpose foreign to the ordinary character of a savage. But
herein lie two shrewd tests of the eventual destiny of the animal as a
domestic species.
Hardiness.—It must be able to shift for itself and to thrive, although it
is neglected; since, if it wanted much care, it would never be worth its
keep.
The hardiness of our domestic animals is shown by the
