hands on my breast he understood the signal and laid down behind
me. If I joined my hands and lifted them to my breast, he returned
home. If I grasped one arm above the elbow he ran before me. If
I lifted my hand to my forehead he trotted composedly behind. By
one motion I could make him bark; by another I could reduce him to
silence. He would howl in twenty different strains of
mournfulness, at my bidding. He would fetch and carry with
undeviating faithfulness.

His actions being thus chiefly regulated by gestures, that to
a stranger would appear indifferent or casual, it was easy to
produce a belief that the animal's knowledge was much greater than
in truth, it was.

One day, in a mixed company, the discourse turned upon the
unrivaled abilities of ~~Damon~~. Damon had, indeed, acquired in
all the circles which I frequented, an extraordinary reputation.
Numerous instances of his sagacity were quoted and some of them
exhibited on the spot. Much surprise was excited by the readiness
with which he appeared to comprehend sentences of considerable
abstraction and complexity, though, he in reality, attended to
nothing but the movements of hand or fingers with which I
accompanied my words. I enhanced the astonishment of some and
excited the ridicule of others, by observing that my dog not only
understood English when spoken by others, but actually spoke the
language himself, with no small degree of precision.

This assertion could not be admitted without proof; proof,
therefore, was readily produced. At a known signal, Damon began a
low interrupted noise, in which the astonished hearers clearly