Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-04-03

Of which I. was not slow In taking advan~
tage Of. 30 that almost before the Fellow
knew that I was awake was upon my
| feet with my arms over his shoulders ana
about his waist and had hurled him heav-
| lily over my head to the hard rubble OF
the beach. where he lay quite still.
| In the instant that arose I had seen
| the hyaenodon lying asleep beside pouider
| few yards away. So nearly was ne tne
| color of the rock that he was scarcely dis
| cernibe. Evidently the newcomers had not
| seen him.
| ] had not more than freed myself from
| one of my antagonists before the other
| three were upon me. They did not WORK
| silenly now. but charged me with savage
cres-a mistake upon their part. The fact
| that they did not draw their weapons
| against me convinced me that they desired
| to take me alive; but l fought as des-
| perately as IL death loomed immediate and
| sure.
| The battle was short for scarce had their
| first wild whoop reverberated through the
| rocky ford. and they had closed upon me-
| than hairy mass of demoniacal rage
| hurted among us.
IL was the hyaenodon
| In an instant he had pulled down one
| of the men, and with single shake, ter
| rierlike, had broken his neck. Then he
| was upon another. In their efforts to van
| quish the wof-dog the savages forgot all
| about me. thus giving me an instant in
| which to snatch a knife from the lonstrng
| of him who had first fallen and account
| for another of them. Almost simultaneously
| the hyaenodon pulled down the remaining
enemy. crushing his skull with single
| bite of those fearsome jaws.
The battle was over--unless the beast
| considered me fair prey, too. | waited'
ready for him with knife and bludgeon-
| also filched from a dead foeman. but he
| paid no attention to me, falling to work
instead to devour one of the corpses.
The beast had been handicapped but lit
tie by his splnted leg but having eaten
| he lay down and commenced to gnaw at
! the bandage. / was sitting some little as
| tance away devouring shellfsh, of which, by
the way, was becoming exceedingly tired.
Presently the hyaenodon arose and came
toward me. I did not move. lie stopped
| in front of me and deliberately raised MS
bandaged leg and paved my knee. HIS act
| was as Ineligible as words--he wished the
| bandage removed.
| l took the great paw in one hand ana
with the other united and unwound the
bandage, removed the splints and felt OF
the injured member As far as l could
judge, the bone completely knit. The
joint was stiff when | bent 1t little the
brute winced-but he neither growled nor
| tried to pull away. Very slowly and gently
| | rubbed the joint and applied pressure 10
1t for a few moments.
Then set it down upon the ground. The
hyaenodon walked around me few times,
and then lay down at my side, his body
touching mine He did not move. Slowly
| scratched about his ears and neck ana
down beneath the fierce jaws The only
sign he gave was to raise his chin trlhe
that l might better caress him.
That was enough. From that moment
| I have never again felt suspicion OF RaJa.
as l Immediately named him. Somehow
, all sense Of loneliness vanished, tool had
a dog I had never guessed precisely what
, it that was lacking to life in Pelluci-
, dar; but now l knew that it was the total
absence of domestic animals.
Man here had not yet reached the point
where he might take the time from slaugh-
: ter and escaping slaughter to make friends
!, with any of the brute creation L must
, qualify this statement trihe and say
. that this was true of those tribes with which
! was most familiar. The Thurians do do
, mesticate the colossal ldi, traversing the
, great Lidi Plans uron the backs of these
: grotesque and stuI ndous monsters, ana
; possibly there may also be other far-dis-
tant peoples within this great world who
have tanned others of the wild things of
Jungle plain or mountain.
r The Thurians practice agriculture in a
= crude sort of way. 1t is my opinion that
this is of the earliest steps from saw
d agery to civilization. The tanning of wild
y beasts and their domestication follows.
T. Perry argues that wild dogs were first
domesticated for hunting purposes; but
| do not agree with him. / believe that II
n their domestication were not purely the re
e suit of an accident as, for example, m,
I tanning of the hyaenodon, 1t came about
a through the desire of tribes who had pre-
e viously domesticated flocks and herds tt
Q have some strong, ferocious beast to guard
their roaming property. However, l lear
j, rather more strongly to the theory Of acci
. dent.
AS 1 sat there upon the beach of the lit
: | tie ford eating my unpalatable shellfsh,
commenced to wonder how it had been that
the four savages had been able to reach
| me, though / had been unable to escape
from my natural prison. / glanced about
in all directions, searching for an eXplana.
tion. At last my eyes fell upon the bow
of a small dugout protruding scarce a foot
from behind large boulder lying half in
the water at the edge of the beach.
At my discovery l leaped to my feet sc
suddenly that it brought Raja, growing
and bristling. upon all fours in an instant
For the moment l had forgotten him. But
| his savage rumblng did not cause me any
uneasiness. He glanced quickly about in
all directions as If searching for the cause
of any excitement. Then, l walked rap.
idly down toward the dugout he skunk
silently after me.
to those which ] had seen in use by the
| Mezops. In II were four paddles. l was
= much delighted, as 1t promptly offered me
}, | the escape l had been craving
- l pushed it out into water that would
= float it. stepped in and called to Raja to
. . enter. At first he did not seem to under.
y stand what / wished of him, but after
! had padded out a few yards he plunged
. through the surf and swan after me- Wher
i he had come alongside l grasped the scruf
of his neck and after a considerable strug.
e | gle, in which l several times came near tc
u overturning the canoe. / managed to drae
! him aboard, where he shook himself Wig.