4 December: To-day I said to Lola: "Why don't I understand dog-language?"[23] "Oft eil" ( = often hurried.) "Yes, but even when I have tried, and paid attention I cannot understand!" "In hauch--zsuvzaes" ( = the first two words are "in breath," the remainder quite vague!) In a quarter of an hour I showed her a card on which a small child and a dog were looking at each other, and beneath--in Latin characters was written: "Wer bist du?"[24] "Can you read that?" I asked. "Yes!" So I put the card aside and said: "What is the second word?" "Bist." "But do you understand the sentence?" "Yes." "Which is saying it--the dog or the child? Look at both of them, they are young, and have met for the first time in their lives." "Both!" [23] Lola often uses quite incomprehensible words and once declared that they belonged to "a particular dog-language"--my further inquiries have been quite fruitless, and these words were probably her own inventions! [24] "Who are you?" 11 December: "Lola! why do you and Frechi always bite one another when you are allowed to go loose?" "Ambitious!" "Ambitious to see who is the stronger?" "Yes!" "And which of you two is the strongest?" "Frechi!" She had applied the word with a nice sense of fitness: when two dogs meet for the first time this is exactly the feeling that arises--either _one_ of them is by far the strongest--a fact that both of them will be aware of, and silently acknowledge--or, their strength may be pretty evenly matched--in which case a fight will ensue, possibly even several fights, before the issue is finally decided. Is this not often _spiritually_ the case between man and man? 13 December: Lola had been chasing after the game and had been punished by having to go without her food. She was however, in high spirits and rapped "esen!" following this hint in half an hour with "zu esen!" ( = (give me) to eat!) I explained to her that this could not be done: that a punishment was imperative, if she would not break herself of her evil habits. Then Lola rapped out suddenly. "Lere mich artig sein!" ( = teach me to be good!") 22 December: I have been showing her a picture in a book of Fairy Tales. My brother was present at the time, and it was the picture of the house of a robber, the house being drawn so as to represent a face: it had indeed been very cleverly executed. "Lola," said I, "whatever is there about that house--do you notice anything?" (And thought she would rap "face.") She rapped. "Is a person!" I avoided looking at it again and merely asked, "Tell me, does it look friendly, or angry, or nice?" "Spetisch." "Spoettische?" ( = mocking.) "Yes." And we both thought this reply admirable, for the "house" _does_ look at one most "mockingly" out of the corners of its eyes.