Paulus Diaconus and Olaus Magnus tell us, that “there are multitudes
of bears in the south, which oftentimes will come to the shepherds and
make them play to them till hunger forceth them to go away; and as soon
as they are gone, the shepherd will sound his horn, by which they are
so affrighted that they will never come any more.”
Many _dogs_ appear to be fond of music. Mr. Jesse observes, that
“there is hardly a regimental band in the British service which is not
attended by some particular dog, who owns no master, but picks up his
living where he can; in fact, attaches itself to the band, and follows
it from one quarter to another. These dogs are great favorites with
the soldiers, and they never ill-use them or suffer others to do so.”
M. Marville says, that while a man was playing upon a conch shell,
he noticed a dog sitting on its hind legs looking steadfastly at the
player for above an hour; and M. Le Cat observes, that we hear a dog
howl, we see him weep, as it were, at a tune played upon a flute; but
we see him quite lively in a field, at the sound of a French horn.
Bowyer states, that “a Scotch bagpiper traversing the mountains of
Ulster, in Ireland, was one evening encountered by a starved _wolf_. In
his distress, the poor man could think of nothing better than to open
his wallet, and try the effects of his hospitality; he did so, and the
savage swallowed all that was thrown to him with such a voracity that
it seemed as if his appetite was just returning to him. The whole stock
of provision was, of course, soon spent, and now his only recourse was
to the virtues of his bagpipe; this the monster no sooner heard, than
he took to the mountains with the same precipitation with which he had
left them. The poor piper could not so perfectly enjoy his deliverance,
but that, with an angry look at parting, he shook his head, saying,
‘Ay, are these your tricks? had I known your humor, you should have had
your music before supper.’”
Sparrman furnishes us with an anecdote of a trumpeter, who, by a
similar expedient, saved himself from falling a prey to a prowling
hyæna:――“One night,” he says, “at a feast near the Cape, a trumpeter,
who had got himself well filled with liquor, was carried out of doors,
in order to cool and sober him. The scent of him soon attracted a
_spotted hyæna_, which threw him on its back, and carried him away to
Table Mountain, thinking him a corpse, and consequently a fair prize.
In the mean time, our drunken musician awoke sufficiently sensible
to know the danger of his situation, and to sound the alarm with his
trumpet, which he carried fastened to his side. The beast, as may be
easily imagined, was not less frightened in its turn, and ran away.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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