THE WAYS OF MONKEYS. 237 



this a pronounced analogy with mankind who, since tLe existence of 

 the world, though under severe penal legislation, find it so hard a 

 task to observe the difference between mine and thine ? 



The hungry crowd of quadrumana infest fields and gardens : neither 

 lock nor bolt, neither fence nor wall is an obstacle for those robbers, 

 who steal and destroy everything in their way, whether it be eatable 

 or not. It is not surprising, to any one who has witnessed such dep- 

 redations, to see the farmers entertain a mortal hatred against these 

 dark, grinning thieves ; and the Arabs range them in the category of 

 evil spirits. When they are surprised in their mischievous work, they 

 flee like cowards toward the nearest trees or rocks, the mothers carry- 

 ing their children. Only when flight is impossible do they show fight, 

 and attack men as well as the biggest beasts of prey, and even elephants, 

 with that impetuous temerity which distinguishes the coward in de- 

 spair. 



After a gestation of from seven to nine months, the female monkey 

 gives birth to one young one, very seldom to twins. The new-born 

 monkey is a little ugly creature, bare of hairs, with spindling limbs 

 and a repulsive, senile face. But the mother is passionately fond of her 

 monster, and caresses and nurses it with remarkable devotion. She 

 does not leave it for a single moment, she presses it to her heart, rocks 

 it to and fro, and takes the utmost care to keep it absolutely clean. In 

 the first pei'iod of life the baby is apathetic and almost insensible, but 

 begins gradually to play with urchins of its age. The mother is a 

 patient observer of the first steps of her beloved, and watches care- 

 fully that no harm may befall it. In the mean time, she trains it ; and 

 the first virtue inculcated in the mind of the youngster is obedience, 

 obedience in the strictest sense of the word. Men have ridiculed the 

 maternal affection of the brute, and speak of "apish love." In our 

 eyes the tenderness exhibited by the monkey may have a ridiculous 

 side, but where is the man who could, without deep emotion, witness 

 the anxiety of a mother-ape nursing her sick child ? I must confess 

 that, to my eye, in such cases she is at least the equal of the human 

 mother. If the young ape dies, the spectacle is a piteous one. The 

 mother can not be separated from the dead body, refuses all food, and 

 frequently perishes from grief. In such crises the ape proves cer- 

 tainly his congeniality with the human race, and in his moral affec- 

 tions could stand as an example to many men. 



The intellectual cultivation of which the monkeys are susceptible 

 neither raises them so high above the average of mammifers, nor places 

 them so far beneath the level of mankind, as some people contend. 

 Further on, we find in no order of animals, as far as intellect is con- 

 cerned, so wide a difference between the highest and the lowest indi- 

 viduals as among the monkeys, while, in inverse proportion, the lowest- 

 gifted human creature hardly differs from the apes whose intelli- 

 gence is most developed. In many instances the mental and bodily 



