ANIMALS AND LANGUAGE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")
SES,-I can match Mrs. De Morgan's pretty story of her "Dido." A wise old dog with whom I have the privilege to associate was, two or three days ago, lying asleep in her basket by the fire, I entered the room with my hat on, and invited her to join me- in a walk ; but, after looking up at me for a moment, as canine politeness required, she dropped back among her cushions, obviously replying, "Thank you very much, but I prefer repose." Thereupon I observed, in a clear voice, "I am not going on the road" (a promenade disliked by the dogs, because the walls on either side restrict the spirit of scientific research); "lam going up the mountain." Instantly my little friend jumped up, shook her ears, and, with a cheerful bark, announced 'herself as ready to join the party.
Beyond doubt or question, "Colleen" had either understood the word "road," or the word "mountain," or both, and deter- mined her proceedings accordingly. Nothing in my action showed, or could show, the meaning of my words.
If any of your readers who have resided for some weeks or months in a country where a language is spoken entirely foreign to their own,—say, Arabic, or Basque, or Welsh,—will recall of how many words they insensibly learn the meaning without asking it, and merely by hearing them always used in certain relations, they will have, I think, a fair measure of the extent and nature of a dog's knowledge of the language of his master& My dog has lived fewer years in the world than I have passed in Wales, but he knows just about as much English as I know Welsh, and has acquired it just in the same way.—I am, Sir, &c., F. P. C.
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