ho gave the new
rules outward observance, but embraced every opportunity of indulging
secretly in those flesh-pots to which they had been accustomed. It was
found that animals were continually dying natural deaths under more or
less suspicious circumstances. Suicidal mania, again, which had hitherto
been confined exclusively to donkeys, became alarmingly prevalent even
among such for the most part self-respecting creatures as sheep and
cattle. It was astonishing how some of these unfortunate animals would
scent out a butcher's knife if there was one within a mile of them, and
run right up against it if the butcher did not get it out of their way in
time.

Dogs, again, that had been quite law-abiding as regards domestic poultry,
tame rabbits, sucking pigs, or sheep and lambs, suddenly took to breaking
beyond the control of their masters, and killing anything that they were
told not to touch. It was held that any animal killed by a dog had died
a natural death, for it was the dog's nature to kill things, and he had
only refrained from molesting farmyard creatures hitherto because his
nature had been tampered with. Unfortunately the more these unruly
tendencies became developed, the more the common people seemed to delight
in breeding the very animals that would put temptation in the dog's way.
There is little doubt, in fact, that they were deliberately evading the
law; but whether this was so or no they sold or ate everything their dogs
had killed.

Evasion was more difficult in the case of the larger animals, for the
magistrates could not wink at all the pretended suicides of pigs, sheep,
and cattle that were brought before them. Sometimes they had to convict,
and a few convictions had a very terrorising effect--whereas in the case
of animals killed by a dog, the marks of the dog's teeth could be seen,
and it was practically impossible to prove malice on the part of the
owner of the dog.

Another fertile source of disobedience to the law was furnished by a
decision of one of the judges that raised a great outcry among the more
fervent disciples of the old prophet. The judge held that it was lawful
to kill any animal in self-defence, and that such conduct was so natural
on the part of a man who found himself attacked, that the attacking
creature should be held to have died a natural death. The High
Vegetarians had indeed good reason to be alarmed, for hardly had this
decision become generally known before a num