A gentleman one day talking with a friend said that beasts were mere machines, and had no sort of reason to direct them; and that when they cried or made a noise, it was only one of the wheels of the clock or machine that made it.
The friend, who was of a different opinion replied, "I have now in my kitchen two dogs who take turns regularly every other morning to get into the wheel. One of them, not liking his employment, hid himself on the day that he should work, so that his companion was forced to mount the wheel in his stead, but crying and wagging his tail, he made sign for those about him to follow him. He at once led them to a garret, where he found the idle dog, drove him out and killed him at once."
An ass, belonging to a captain in the Royal Navy, then at Malta, was shipped on board a frigate, bound from Gibraltar for that island. The vessel struck on some sands off the Point de Gat, and the ass was thrown overboard, in the hope that it might possibly be able to swim to the land. Of this, however, there did not seem to be much chance, for the sea was running so high, that a boat which left the ship was lost. A few days later, when the gates of Gibraltar were opened one morning the guard were surprised by Valiant, as the ass was called, presenting himself there for admittance. On entering, he went at once to the stable of a merchant, where he had formerly lived. The poor animal had not only swum safely to shore, but without guide, compass, or travelling map, had found his way from Point de Gat to Gibraltar, a distance of more than two hundred miles, through a mountainous and intricate country, crossed by streams, which he had never travelled over before, and in so short a period, that he could not have made one false turn.
The town of Bindrabund in India is in high regard with the pious Hindoos, who resort to it from the most remote parts of the empire. The town is surrounded by groves of trees, which are the homes of numberless apes, whose fondness for mischief is increased by the religious respect paid to them in honor of a divinity of the Hindoo mythology, who is represented as having the body of an ape. Because of this superstition, such numbers of these animals are supported by the free-will offerings of pilgrims, that no one dares to resist or ill-treat them. Hence, access to the town is often difficult; for should one of the apes take a dislike to any unlucky traveller, he is sure to be assailed by the whole community, who follow him with all the missile weapons they can collect, such as pieces of bamboo, stones, and dirt, making at the same time a most hideous howling. Of the danger attending a meeting with enemies of this description, the following is a melancholy instance. Two young cavalry officers, belonging to the Bengal army, having occasion to pass through the town, were attacked by a body of apes, at whom one of the gentlemen had foolishly fired. The alarm instantly drew the whole body, with the fakeers, out of the place, with so much fury that the officers, though they were mounted upon elephants, were compelled to seek safety in flight; and in trying to pass the Jumna, they both of them were drowned.