The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1886-10-28
suPERsTITloUs ANIMALS.

SuPERsTITloUs ANIMALS.
\ Dog tina Was Afraid Of i Doll
and 9 Black Horse that Turned
Gray from Fear. l /
It is ~notunusual, writes q. correspond
ent Of me New York Worla, for the
Scottish shepherd to grayely say. when
his sheep carefully avoid some parti-
cular locality, that they must haze
seen ! geast there, !" and he will assure
you that there are .'auld kinks and
briggs, and ither uncanny places which
I'll the dougs in Scotland could ma get
his sheep to gang by. But the doug
will sometimes see the geast, too, and
then he will ma gang by there himself"
Upon n occasion the writer had
The opportunity Of studying the super
stitious proclivities of a great New
foundland dog whose chances of asso-
citation with children had been very
limited. With some visitors to his
home came a child with a doll large
enough for the dog to take in the
human characteristics of its head and
face. surmounting the dress in their.
proper order and proportion; this,
united with such falry-like Dimensions,
constituted a mystery too profound for
the mental penetration of Bruin. He
was delighted with the association of
the child, as it was the first Of it's kind
with whom he was on intimate acquain-
tance. He would fol,vw her about
everywhere, and lavish upon her the
friendiiest attentions; but the doll,
none Of it in mine, thank you," and
he was always careful to keep on that
side Of his little friend furthest away
from the doll. Noticing these actions,
the writer took the doll and advanced
It toward the dog, who retreated with
the utmost precipitation, but finally he
was backed into a corner, and, on find
ing his retreat cut of he made q dash
past the doll with an energy which
could not have been more desperate if
his life had been at stake. But the
most comic part of the circus was the
p%retense he made of not being fright
cned. As soon as he secured an open
line of retreat he would take up a
position at a respectful distance and
skip and caper and bark in a manner
which Indicated: who's afraidp If
there is any dog in this neighborhood
that is afraid of fairies he can not be
discovered in this direction" But the
moment the doll was advanced toward
him he ran all the same.
It is not uncommon for cats to play
with a soap bubble without appearing
to be more than astonished or mystifed
by its sudden disappearance. In one
case, however, puss was so demoralized
at the mystery as to grow big-tailed
and spit at any soap bubble which
might happen to fall to the floor and
drift across it, Another, which up to
that time had never seen q colored per-
son, fled so precipitately from a good
looking negro girl that it ,tumbled into
. grating, from which it could not be
coaxed until hunger overcame it's ter
ror; and the oddly of it was that puss
herself was as black as a coal.
"A farmer was greatly annoyed by
his neighbor's pig getting into his po-
tatoe-feld and harvesting on his own
account. Whenever he drove the ag-
gressor out he was forced to lay down
. panel Of the snake fence as bacon ia
the conscious state is always careful
never to betray the place where it en-
ters a bonanza by going out there, I'M
less he is very hard pressed by dogs.
The farmer had diligently searched for
q defect in the fence, but failed to find
one where the pig could by any posi-
bility enter, SO he concluded to watch,
and soon had the satisfaction of seeing
the thief enter the end of a crooked,
hollow log which made q part Of the
fence, one end being In his field aid
n in that of his .neighbor. After
driving the burglar out lie changed the
position OF the log SO that both ends
were in his neighbours field, and con-
cluded to watch the result. Soon the
pig came along and went through the
log. As usual, but upon searching for
potatoes he found only pasture-grass,
and after some little delay he seemed
to arrive Ut the conclusion that he had
not gone through the log at all. SO he
went through. again, and upon emery
ing into he p~asture-field seemed more
mystitied than ever; but after q more
.protracted search for the potatoes than
even before he seemed to conclude that
owing to some blunder Of his own ne
had not really gone through the log.
90 in hetwent again and out into the
pasture-ield, but this time he stood
still as . statue for about half q min.
ute, and slowly the bristles began to
stand erect along his back, and with.
two or three tremendous shifts he set
Of at the top3of his speed for the house
81. his owner, and never afterward
could be induced 10 approach that part