FOUR-HANDED SINNERS. 109 



could form anything like a clear conception of its own wants. 

 . . , Untutored barbarians," lie adds, " are apt to indulge in similar 

 methods of self-assertion, and, in settling a controversy, prefer 

 menacing gestures to rational explanations." 



That tendency, however, is not confined to infants and savages. 

 The black-faced Cynocejjhalus maurus (the "Cutch baboon "of 

 the New York pet-dealers) resents the slightest misunderstanding 

 of his desires, and, after reaching out for a glittering toy, can not 

 be placated by an offered tidbit, but slams down his fist with the 

 dogmatic emphasis of a colored revival-preacher. In his contro- 

 versies with his cage-mate (a female spaniel) my pet Cutch will 

 lay hold of the dog's tail and enforce his theories with a per- 

 emptory pull that never fails to provoke a rough-and-tumble 

 fight ; but, long after the dog has relapsed into sullen silence, her 

 antagonist will shake the cage with resounding blows, and every 

 now and then steal a look at the by-standers, to invite their at- 

 tention to his " best method of dealing with heretics." 



Egotism has been defined as the " stout stem of which altru- 

 ism is the tender flower," and our Darwinian relatives can claim 

 a healthy share of that moral substratum. Faust-Reclit, the law 

 of the strong hand, is the recognized code of every monkey com- 

 munity. Without the slightest pretext of preliminary explana- 

 tions the president of a simian syndicate will snatch away the 

 shares of the weaker stockholders and ignore the shrieks of his 

 victims with the eupeptic equanimity of a retired railway nabob. 

 The mere sight of alien property is apt to excite the covetousness 

 of a privileged four-hander. My pig-tail monkey {Macacus ne- 

 mestrinus) can not see a dog gnaw a bone without plotting the 

 appropriation of the unknown dainty, and, even after a series of 

 vain attempts to utilize his booty, will guard his prize in the 

 vague hope of discovering the secret of its value. He sleeps in a 

 tub, but has failed to adopt the cynic tenet of attaining happiness 

 by a reduction of his desires ; and whenever he succeeds in pulling 

 the staple of his chain, his barrel gets stuffed with an accumula- 

 tion of miscellaneous plunder, including such objects of rather 

 limited utility as kite-tails, empty bottles, ice-hooks, feathers, and 

 potsherds. He is fond of taking an inventory of his property by 

 spreading his collection on an open porch, but at such moments 

 regards every intruder with nervous suspicion, and at the ap- 

 proach of a street Arab makes a determined rush to obviate a 

 possible depreciation of his stock. 



The acquisitive energy of a monkey-swarm must be witnessed 

 to be credited. In the banana-gardens of the tierra caliente a 

 Mexican capuchin monkey will exhaust his business opportuni- 

 ties with the dispatch of a Cincinnati bank-cashier ; but, in his 

 attempt to reach the Canadian side of the hedge with a good arm- 



