24 THE FERNAND VAZ. Chap. II. 



me no end of amusement ; he was, however, very 

 tame, like all young chimpanzees. Unfortunately 

 Thomas was lame in one hand, several of the fingers 

 having been broken and healed up in a distorted 

 position. This was caused by his having been mal- 

 treated by the village dogs, who were sent in chase 

 of him one day when he escaped from his captors and 

 ran into the neighbouring woods. I had Tom tied 

 by a cord to a pole in the verandah of my hut, and 

 fed him with cooked plantains and other food from 

 my own table. He soon got to prefer cooked to raw 

 food, and rejected raw plantains whenever they were 

 offered to him. The difterence in tameability between 

 the young chimpanzee and the young gorilla is a fact 

 which I have confirmed by numerous observations, 

 and I must repeat it here as it was one of those points 

 which were disputed in my former work. A young 

 chimpanzee becomes tame and apparently reconciled 

 to captivity in two or three days after he is brought 

 from the woods. The young gorilla I have never 

 yet seen tame in confinement, although I have had 

 four of them in custody, while still of very early age. 

 One day I witnessed an act of Master Thomas 

 which seemed to me to illustrate the habits of his 

 species in the wild state. A few days after he came 

 into my possession I bought a domestic cat for my 

 house ; as soon as the young chimpanzee saw it he 

 flew in alarm to his pole and clambered up it, the 

 hair of his body becoming erect and his eyes bright 

 with excitement. In a moment recovering himself 

 he came down, and rusliing on the cat, with one of 

 his feet seized the nape of the animal, and with the 



