LIFE IN CAPTIVITY-. 263 



clasped the vessel with both hands, and set it down 

 again so softly and carefully that I cannot remember 

 his breaking a single article of our household goods. 

 Yet we never taught the creature the use of our 

 vessels and other manufactured articles, since we 

 wished to bring him to Europe, as far as possible in 

 a state of nature. His behaviour at meal-times was 

 quiet and mannerly ; he only took as much as he 

 could hold with his thumb, fore, and middle finger, 

 and looked on with indifference when any of the 

 different forms of food heaped up before him were 

 taken away. If, however, nothing was given him, 

 he growled impatiently, looked narrowly at all the 

 dishes from his place at table, and accompanied 

 every plate carried off by the negro boys with an 

 angry snarl or a short, resentful cough, and some- 

 times he sought to seize the arm of the passer-by 

 in order to express his displeasure more plainly by 

 a bite or a blow. In another minute he would play 

 with the negroes as with his fellows, and this dis- 

 tinguishes him altogether from other apes, and 

 especially from baboons, who appear to feel an in- 

 stinctive hatred against many of the black race, and 

 take a peculiar pleasure in displaying their animosity 

 against them. 



" He drank by suction, stooping over the vessel 

 without even putting his hands into it or upsetting 

 it, and in the case of smaller vessels, he carried them 

 to his mouth. He was a skilful climber, but some- 

 times his high spirits made him careless, and he 

 once fell to the ground from a tree, which was 

 fortunately not very high. His cleanliness was 



