162 



judging from the accounts given of such experiments ■vvith the un- 

 tutored natives of a wild and newly discovered land. 



" I broke a sugared almond in two, and, as he was eating one half, 

 placed the other, ■vvhile he ■vvas watching me, in a little card-box 

 which I shut in his presence — as soon as he had finished the piece 

 of almond wliich he had, I gavę him the box. \Vith his teeth and 

 hands he pulled oiF the cover, took out the other half, and then laid 

 the box dovvn. He ate the kernel of this almond, rejecting the 

 greatest part of the sugary pašte in w'liich it \vas incased, as if it had 

 been a shell : but he soon found out his error ; for, another almond 

 being presented to him, he carefully sucked ofF the sugar and left 

 the kernel. 



I then produced a wine-glass, into which I poured some racy sherry, 

 and further sweetened it with sugar. He watched me -vvith some 

 impatience, and 'vvhen I gavę him the glass he raised it v'ith his 

 hands to his lips, and drank a very little. It \vas not to his taste, 

 ho-vvever, for he set dovra the glass, almost as full as he had taken 

 it up ; and yet he was thirsty, for I caused a tea-cup with some 

 sugared \varm milk and water to be handed to him, and he took up 

 the cup and drained it to the lašt drop. 



" I presented him with a cocoa-nut, to the shell of \vhich some of the 

 husk was still adhering: the tender bud was just beginning to push 

 forth — this he immediately bit off and ate. He then stripped ofF some 

 of the husk with his teeth, swung it by the knot of adhering husk- 

 fibres round his head, dashed it doAvn, and repeatedly jumped upon 

 it with all his weight. He afterwards swung it about and dashed it 

 dow'n -vvith such violence that, fearing his person might suffer, I had 

 it taken a-vvay. A hole was afterwards bored through one of the 

 eyes, and the cocoa-nut \vas again given to him. He immediately 

 held it up -CT'ith the aperture do\vn\vards, applied his mouth to it, and 

 sucked a\vay at -vvhat milk there -vvas -vvith great glee. 



"As I \vas making notes \vith a pencil, he came up, inąuisitively 

 looked at the paper and pencil, and then took hold of the latter. 

 Before I gavę it up, I drew the pencil into the case, foreseeing that 

 he -vvould submit the pencil-case to examination by the teeth. Im- 

 mediately that he got it into his possession, he put the tip of his 

 little finger to the aperture at the bottom, and having looked at it, 

 tried the case with his teeth. 



" While his attention -vvas otherwise directed I had caused a 

 hamper containing one of the Pythons to be brought into the room 

 and placed on a chair not far from the kitchen dresser. The lid 

 -vvas raised, the blanket in -vvhich the snake vvas enveloped -vvas 

 opened, and soon after Tommy came gamboling that way. As he 

 jumped and danced along the dresser to\vards the basket, he was all 

 gaiety and life. Suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stopped — 



I 



