THE NATIVE DOGS—HOW THEY HUNT THEIR OWN GAME WHEN THEY ARE NOT FED—THEIR WAYS OF ATTACK—THEIR USEFULNESS TO THEIR MASTERS IN WAR-TIME—OSHORIA’S STORY.
One morning I was surprised not to see a single dog on the plantation, and I wondered where they could have gone.
“Where are all the dogs?” I asked Regundo.
“Oguizi,” he replied, “all the dogs have gone to the forest. They act in this way when they are hungry. They found that we had no food for them, and, having gnawed all the bones they had hidden in the ground, they thought it was time to go and hunt by themselves, and feed on what they could catch. Often they spend the whole day hunting, and do not return before sunset, sometimes not until the next day, when they find out an old camp to sleep in. Dogs are very sly. They have a leader; they understand him, and they understand each other. One by one they leave the plantation and meet outside.”
I had been wondering, since I came, what the poor dogs had to eat, for no one ever gave them food. They seemed to feed only on the bones that were thrown to them. The hungry dogs were always watching the movements of the people, though they appeared as if asleep. But this was only a blind, for as soon as a house was left vacant, they immediately got up and entered the place to see if there were any food to steal. All these native dogs are great thieves, and wherever they have a chance they steal, and it is very seldom they miss the opportunity offered. As soon as they get a bone they go to a lonely spot where they are safe from the other dogs, and when tired of gnawing it, they hide it in the ground, and never forget the spot where they have left it when they want it again.
In the evening the dogs made their appearance before the houses of their respective masters. They had evidently been unsuccessful in their hunt, and had had nothing to eat, to judge by the pinched appearance of their stomachs. A few pieces of manioc, just enough to prevent them from dying of starvation, were thrown to them, after which they fell asleep, as they were very tired.
“It is not good for dogs to be too well fed,” said Regundo to me.
After what Regundo had told me, I watched the dogs every day, and found that, though they belonged to different masters, they formed a pack amongst themselves, and that they understood each other thoroughly. I discovered that “Fierce” was their leader. When they wanted to go a hunting together, they did not bark. On the contrary, they were very sly, and looked at each other with a peculiar expression of their eyes, which meant one thing or another to them.
How “Fierce” had become their leader I could not tell, except that he could attack with fierceness, and could bite savagely. Physically he was the strongest of all the dogs; hence he ruled over the others. He was always the first to leave, and the others followed. He generally went to see the other dogs before they started. He always led in the attack, and seemed to prevent the other dogs from being too forward in the fray. When he retreated, they retreated, and in some way, unknown to me, each dog was given his proper position in the attack.
One morning when I got up I found that the dogs had again left, and no one had seen them go away, or could tell whither they had gone. “They are very hungry,” said Regundo, “and will continue to go into the forest until they have killed some game, and thus have their hunger satisfied.”