THE WAYS OF MONKEYS. 243 



place. He went a second time, but found his retreat cut off, the door 

 between the cage and the shanty having been shut. Seeing at the 

 same moment the attendant armed with the dreadful gun reappear, the 

 monkey understood at once that he was lost, jumped furiously at the 

 closed door, tried to escape through every corner, and, finding that 

 flight was impossible, lay down trembling, and awaited the deadly 

 bullet. 



The ape holds himself far above the other animals, and endeavors 

 to make them understand it. My baboon showed her superior stand- 

 ing by tormenting every other animal in the house without any reason 

 or the slightest provocation. I had an old dog whose temper had been 

 spoiled by age, and which lived in open war with every creature in the 

 house. My baboon picked it out as an object for her tricks. Wben 

 the dog was taking its siesta, the ape would crawl cautiously near, seize 

 the animal by the tail, and, jumping back, give it an awful jerk. The 

 dog, roused from slumber, flew into a violent passion, and went howl- 

 ing and barking for the ape, who quietly watched him, and aggravated 

 his excitement by patting the floor with her hands. As soon as 

 the dog was near enough to reach her, she made a jump upon his 

 back, and again squeezed his tail. These successive insults made the 

 dog nearly frantic ; he foamed and howled, but, the more excited he 

 grew, the worse the monkey tormented him. Finally, the old hypochon- 

 driac, seeing the uselessness of trying to chastise the foe of his rest, 

 marched off with his tail between his legs whenever the monkey showed 

 her face. 



The sagacity and docility of the Cynopithecini, wonderful as they 

 are, can not be compared with the intelligence of the Anthropomorpha, 

 especially the chimpanzee, the gorilla, the orang-outang, and others. 

 I have closely observed several individuals of the family, allowed them 

 to play with my children, and cared for their training and education, 

 and have drawn astonishing results from my studies. These monkeys 

 are creatures which one treats involuntarily like men, or at least like chil- 

 dren. The orang-outangs are melancholic and not very sympathetic with 

 men ; the variety of the pongos, to which the chimpanzee belongs, is 

 jovial and by far the most intelligent. Their voice is pure and plain, 

 and, while it can not be denied that the voice of the gibbons sounds 

 more melodious and constitutes a veritable song, that of the chimpan- 

 zee is a formal language. All the sounds are fully accentuated, and 

 the observer soon understands the meaning of the different modula- 

 tions, while children, playing with the animal, catch at once the sense 

 of its utterances. 



It is really impossible to treat the chimpanzee like an animal ; his 

 character and general behavior show so much of humanity that men 

 are induced to commune with him in the same way as with their 

 equals. In captivity he is perfectly conscious of his position, and sub- 

 ordinates himself willingly to the superior mental gifts and capacities 



