THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ORDER. 21 



to her, and huny with their burdens to the nearest tree or rock. The 

 leader marches in front and indicates the path to be taken ; not till he 

 announces that all danger is over, does the herd gather again and return, 

 to resume their foraging. 



All apes do not fly from their enemies ; the larger ones face the most 

 savage beasts of prey, and man himself. They fight with hands and 

 teeth in most cases, but have been known to employ as weapons broken 

 limbs of trees, and to hurl stones and fruit at their foes. Even to a man 

 armed with a musket the Gorilla is a dangerous opponent. 



In captivity, almost all kinds of apes live in harmony together, but 

 they form for themselves a government resembling that of their days of 

 freedom — the strongest rules. 



The females bear one or two 3^oung ones. This is regularly a small, 

 hideous creature; its limbs are longer in proportion than those of the 

 adult ; its face, with its folds and wrinkles, is more like that of an old 

 man than a child. But its mother loves and tends it with touching care ; 

 the whole attitude and manner of the mother and child are strikingly 

 human as she presses her offspring fondly to her breast, while it flings 

 its arms about her neck, as she dandles it up and down in both hands, 

 or rocks it to sleep on her bosom. As soon as it can go alone, it is 

 allowed to play with other monkey infants, but the mother keeps her 

 eye on it, follows every step, every movement, and at the first symptom 

 of danger rushes towards it uttering her cry of warning and recall. If it 

 disobeys her she boxes its ears ; but this punishment is seldom required, 

 for the monkey child is an example to the human child, and rarely 

 requires speaking to twice. She divides her food with it, and instances 

 have been known where she has died of grief at its loss. If a mother 

 dies, some female of the band adopts the orphan and displays towards it 

 a tenderness equal to that with which she treats her own offspring. 



It is not ascertained how long, on the average, apes are in arriving 

 at maturity. In accordance with all analogy, the larger are slower in 

 growth than the lesser. The American species probably attain their full 

 growth in three or four years ; the baboons in eight to twelve years ; 

 the anthropoid or manlike apes, such as the Gorilla, Chimpanzee and 

 Orang-outan, much later, as they shed their teeth at about the same 

 age as children. We know nothing of the sicknesses from which they 

 suffer when at liberty, nor how long they live; in all probability the 

 manlike apes live as long as man. In captivity, the climate of Europe 



