your very first problem is that you are reading something written by Jared Diamond. keep the salt shaker handy. >I'm half-way through Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by >Jared Diamond, and I'm struck by the similarity between the implicit >agreement made between humans and wolves in 10,000 BC which led to their >domestication, and the explicit agreement made between Vlad and Loish's >mother (and later, between Vlad and Rocza), ie: help me hunt, in exchange >for long life & easy meat. No big surprise there, but it's not often one is >struck by the thought, "hey, this reminds me of Brust" while reading dense >history texts. > >Which led me to wonder: Has anyone else in Dragaeran history ever attempted >to domesticate wild jhereg? Is the natural lifespan of wild jhereg on a >(I'll avoid the word "human" here for the sake of clarity) Dragaeran-scale, >or a Fenarian-scale? Assuming the later, shouldn't one expect to see, over >the next couple of reigns, a similar pattern of selective breeding and >"artifical selection"? By the time the next Cycle comes around, will there >be the jhereg equivalents of Dachshunds, Poodles, and Weimaraners running >around? > >marty