MONKEY AND TORTOISE 135 



But their affection for each other never went to the 

 lengths of unselfishness as regards food ; if choice were 

 given, a monkey would of course take the largest piece, 

 but very often afterwards would drop that and endeavour 

 to take from the other the piece which he had himself 

 passed over. In fact, their maxim seems to be " the 

 other's piece is always better than mine " ! 



Wee Man was the most intelligent of the three, and had 

 a more capable-looking head. When his rope became 

 very much entangled with that of Tommy, he would look 

 at the' tangle for a while and then deliberately try to 

 disentangle it by picking up a loop and, as it were, un- 

 threading himself by walking through it. Often, if the 

 tangle was a simple one, he would succeed, but if the first 

 method was not successful he would try walking through 

 the loop in a reverse direction. Tommy, however, though 

 he might make futile attempts, never succeeded, and seemed 

 to do it mechanically because he had seen Wee Man do 

 it. This is the only instance I ever saw of the reputed 

 imitativeness of a monkey. A certain intelligence was 

 also shown in the recognition of zoological afiinity. The 

 noise made for a snake has already been described, and 

 the same was also made for a fish ; and, one day, having 

 found a tortoise, I brought it back to see what Wee Man 

 would say to it. 



At first the tortoise withdrew itself within the shell : 

 Wee Man came down to look very cautiously at it, 

 intensely curious and interested, but when it put its head 

 out he hastily retreated to his perch with loud utterance 

 of the snake noise. When it began to walk he could not 

 restrain his excitement, and danced round and round it, 

 chattering, though keeping at a safe distance. I am quite 

 sure that this was the first tortoise he had ever met, for 

 he had been a captive ever since, as a baby, he was clinging 

 to his mother. 



On Bugalla Island, where there was much open grass 



