(20/58. Livingstone 'First Travels' pages 191, 439, 565; see also 'Expedition to the Zambesi' 1865 page 495, for an analogous case respecting a good breed of goats.) At Falaba Mr. Winwood Reade noticed an unusually fine horse, and the negro King informed him that "the owner was noted for his skill in breeding horses." Further south on the same continent, Andersson states that he has known a Damara give two fine oxen for a dog which struck his fancy. The Damaras take great delight in having whole droves of cattle of the same colour, and they prize their oxen in proportion to the size of their horns. "The Namaquas have a perfect mania for a uniform team; and almost all the people of Southern Africa value their cattle next to their women, and take a pride in possessing animals that look high-bred. They rarely or never make use of a handsome animal as a beast of burden." (20/59. Andersson 'Travels in South Africa' pages 232, 318, 319.) The power of discrimination which these savages possess is wonderful, and they can recognise to which tribe any cattle belong. Mr. Andersson further informs me that the natives frequently match a particular bull with a particular cow.
The most curious case of selection by semi-civilised people, or indeed by any people, which I have found recorded, is that given by Garcilazo de la Vega, a descendant of the Incas, as having been practised in Peru before the country was subjugated by the Spaniards. (20/60. Dr. Vavasseur in 'Bull. de La Soc. d'Acclimat.' tome 8 1861 page 136.) The Incas annually held great hunts, when all the wild animals were driven from an immense circuit to a central point. The beasts of prey were first destroyed as injurious. The wild Guanacos and Vicunas were sheared; the old males and females killed, and the others set at liberty. The various kinds of deer were examined; the old males and females were likewise killed, "but the young females, with a certain number of males, selected from the most beautiful and strong," were given their freedom. Here, then, we have selection by man aiding natural selection. So that the Incas followed exactly the reverse system of that which our Scottish sportsman are accused of following, namely, of steadily killing the finest stags, thus causing the whole race to degenerate. (20/61. 'The Natural History of Dee Side' 1855 page 476.) In regard to the domesticated llamas and alpacas, they were separated in the time of the Incas according to colour: and if by chance one in a flock was born of the wrong colour, it was eventually put into another flock.
In the genus Auchenia there are four forms,--the Guanaco and Vicuna, found wild and undoubtedly distinct species; the Llama and Alpaca, known only in a domesticated condition. These four animals appear so different, that most naturalists, especially those who have studied these animals in their native country, maintain that they are specifically distinct, notwithstanding that no one pretends to have seen a wild llama or alpaca. Mr. Ledger, however, who has closely studied these animals both in Peru and during their exportation to Australia, and who has made many experiments on their propagation, adduces arguments (20/62. 'Bull. de la Soc. d'Acclimat.' tome 7 1860 page 457.) which seem to me conclusive, that the llama is the domesticated descendant of the guanaco, and the alpaca of the vicuna. And now that we know that these animals were systematically bred and selected many centuries ago, there is nothing surprising in the great amount of change which they have undergone.
It appeared to me at one time probable that, though ancient and semi-civilised people might have attended to the improvement of their more useful animals in essential points, yet that they would have disregarded unimportant characters. But human nature is the same throughout the world: fashion everywhere reigns supreme, and man is apt to value whatever he may chance to possess. We have seen that in South America the niata cattle, which certainly are not made useful by their shortened faces and upturned nostrils, have been preserved. The Damaras of South Africa value their cattle for uniformity of colour and enormously long horns.