Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1905-07-13
sAvAGES AND THE BRUTEs.
Curious Beliefs Of Primitive Men Re-
garding Animals.

For the primitive savages, animals
are mysterious, problematic beings,
possessed of wide knowledge of the
things of nature. They know much
more than they are ready to tell us.
In some way or another, by the aid OF
senses much more refined than ours,
and by telling to each other all that
they notice in their rambles and
flights, they know everything for miles
round. And If man has been gust
toward them, they will warn him OF
coming danger, as they warn each
other, but they will take no heed OF
him II he has not been straightfor
ward in his actions. Snakes and birds
(the owl is leader of the snakes),
mammals and insects, lizards and
ishes-all understand each other, and
continually communicate their obser-
vations to one another.
Inside this vast brotherhood there
| are, of course, the still closer brother
| hoods Of beings "of one blood" The
monkeys, the bears, the wolves, the
elephants and the rhinoceroses, most
ruminants, the hares and most of the
rodents, the crocodiles, and so on, per-
| fectly know their own kin, and they
will not tolerate any one of their rela-
tives to be slaughtered by man with
out taking, in one way or another,
| honest revenge. This conception must
have had an extremely remote origin.
| Even now, when a savage is hunt
ing, he is bound to respect certain
rules of propriety toward the animals,
and he must perform certain eXpiatory
| ceremonies after his hunt. Most or
| these ceremonies are vigorously en-
acted, even nowadays in the savage
clans, especially as regards those spe-
cies considered the allies Of man.
, 1t is we'll known that two men be-
longing to two different clans or tribes
can become brothers by mixing the
blood of the two, obtained from small
incisions made for that purpose. But
it was also quite habitual for man to
enter into brotherhood with some ami
| NAL. The tales continually mention
| it, An animal asks hunter to spare
| it, and If the hunter accedes to the
| demand the two become brothers.
| And then the monkey, the bear, the
doe, the bird, the crocodile, or the bee
any one Of the sociable animals
will take all possible care of the man
brother in the critical circumstances
of his life, sending his or her animal
brother of different tribes to warn
him or help him out Of a difficulty.
And If the warning comes too late, or
is misunderstood, and he loses his life,
they all will try to bring him back to
life, and If they fail they will take due
revenge, just as if the man had been
one of their own kin.
When l journeyed in Siberia l was
often struck, without understanding it,
with the care which my fungus or
Mongol guide would take not useless
ly to kill any animal. The fact is that
every life is respected by a savage,
or rather it was before he came in
contact with Europeans. If he kills
an animal, it is for food or for cloth
ing; but he does not destroy life, as
the whites do, for the mere excitement
of the slaughter.
True, the red Indians have done that
with the buffaloes; but it was only
after they had been for a long time
in contact with the whites and had got
from them the rifle and the quick-fr-
ing revolver OF course, there are
rascals among the animals, the hyena,
for instance, or the shrewmouse, or
the man-eating tiger; but these do not
count; they are outlaws. AS to the
great animal world as a whole, saw
age children are taught to respect it
and see in it an extension of their own
kin.-Prince Kuropatkin, in the Nine
teenth Century.