176 galton.org
176
Inquiries into Human Faculty
when those travellers are questioned who have lived long and intimately
with savage tribes that the plenitude of available instances becomes most
apparent.
I proceed to give anecdotes of animals being tamed in various parts of
the world, at dates when they were severally beyond the reach of civilised
influences, and where, therefore, the pleasure taken by the natives in
taming them must be ascribed to their unassisted mother-wit. It will be
inferred that the same rude races who were observed to be -capable of
great fondness towards animals in particular instances, would not
unfrequently show it in others.
[North America.]—The traveller Hearne, who wrote towards the end
of the last century, relates the following story of moose or elks in the more
northern parts of North America. He says
“I have repeatedly seen moose at Churchill as tame as sheep and even more so. . . .
The same Indian that brought them to the Factory had, in the year 1770, two others so
tame that when on his passage to Prince of Wales’s Fort in a canoe, the moose always
followed him along the bank of the river; and at night, or on any other occasion when the
Indians landed, the young moose generally came and fondled on them, as the most
domestic animal would have done, and never offered to stray from the tents.”
Sir John Richardson, in an obliging answer to my inquiries about the
Indians of North America, after mentioning the bison calves, wolves, and
other animals that they frequently - capture and keep, said
“It is not unusual, I have heard, for the Indians to bring up young bears, the women
giving them milk from their own breasts.”
He mentions that he himself purchased a young bear, and adds
“The red races are fond of pets and treat them kindly; and in purchasing them there is
always the unwillingness of the women and children to overcome, rather than any dispute
about price. My young bear used to rob the women of the berries they had gathered, but
the loss was borne with good nature.”
I will again quote Hearne, who is unsurpassed for his
