Evening star., 1926-10-23
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

, chance to come early and avoid the
rush which Is sure to crowd after the
arrival Of DR. Mann:s encourage. For
that aggregation of the greatest ami.
NAL show outside Of Africa since Bar
NUNS halcyon days will be equal in
popularity to a new family of cub
bears-and that is the climax.
X X X X
The National Geological Garden is
Sc years old, and men who were
schoolboyS when 1t was established in
1890 are now taking their grandchil.
dren there, just as their own fathers
justified going to circuses to take
their children to see the animals. But
this is not the oldest geological collec-
ton known. Montezuma, the Aztec
emperor, had a great ZOO before
Cortez conquered him.
The ancient Egyptians, living from
5000 to 5000 years before Christ,
used to have menageries of wild ami
mails. besides several species of do
mesticated animals. Mostly these
animals were worshiped. There was
the bull, which they called Apis, and
which represented the sun, the cow
representing the moon, and known
as Athor. Athor stood for the moon
and for eternal night, out of whose
chaos were constantly being reborn all
things that existed in Nature, even
including the sun. And the snake
was the husband of the COW, etc.
In the Egyptian Pantheon one finds
today representations of 25 or 80 ami
mails which were held sacred-hip-
popotami, crocodiles, cats, lions.
wolves, dogs, etc. There were also
birds.
Later the Egyptians became more
practical and got rid of the more
savage beasts, retaining such as could
be domesticated, like cattle and sheep,
and some of the sheep raisers became
kings. Rich farmers used to keep
little menageries on their estates, just
to show their wealth.
Still, there were some great ma
tional geological collections. Power.
full kings learned to use elephants and
other wild. animals in battle to af-
fright their enemies or grace tri-
umphal parades or to make a Roman
holiday in eating the captives, in
arenas, for the enjoyment of royal
SpOrtsmen.
A historical description of a
Greek festival tells of a procession:
IL
by elephants, so drawn by goats, 12
drawn by lions, drawn by long
horned African antelopes, Is drawn
by buffalo, by ostriches, by wild
asses and by deer"
Readers who have seen presenta.
tions Of .Ben-Hur" need not to be re.
minded of the uses Of wild beasts in
devouring martyrs in Roman arenas,
and travellers in Mexico and Spain
are familiar with the arenas of the
bullfighters.
Modern geological collections are
for no such barbaric purpose, but
for general interest and entertain
ment Of the public, and for the edu-
cation Of scientists in animal breed
ing. Here in the National Zoo, the
Department of Agriculture, through
its Bureau of Animal Husbandry, has
experimental in crossing a horse
with zebra. in the hope of develop
ing an animal hardy enough to resist
certain horse diseases.
The public schools make excellent
use of the Zoo by the visits there of
classes of pupils under the guidance
of their teachers. After seeing the
different animals and birds, it Is nat
ural for the student to become inter-
ested in learning their habits and en-
vironment in their natural states, and
so geography and natural history
take on increased interest.
Copyright. 1926. by Paul v. Collins)