76 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



o'clock lusty Rajah was carried to the exhibition space, and set 

 free upon the ground. Forthwith the keepers proceeded to 

 dress him in trousers, vest, coat and cap. The moment the 

 last button had been fastened and the cap placed upon his head, 

 he would promptly walk to the ladder, climb up to the platform, 

 and in the most business-like way imaginable, seat himself in 

 his chair at the table, all ready to dine. 



He used a napkin, ate his soup with a spoon, speared and 

 conveyed his sliced bananas with his fork, poured milk from a 

 teapot into his teacup, and drank from his cup with great 

 enjoyment and decorum. When he took a drink (of tea) from 

 a suspicious^looking black bottle, the audience always laughed. 

 When he elevated the empty bottle to one eye and looked far 

 into it, they roared; and when he finally took a toothpick and 

 gravely placed it in his mouth, his auditors were delighted. 

 Several times during the progress of each meal, Rajah would 

 pause and benignly gaze down upon the crowd, like a self- 

 satisfied judge on his bench. 



Not once did Rajah spoil this exhibition, which was con- 

 tinued throughout an entire summer, nor commit any overt act 

 of impatience, indifference or meanness. The flighty, nervous 

 temper of the chimpanzee was delightfully absent. The most 

 remarkable feature of it all was his very evident enjoyment of 

 his part of the performance, and his sense of responsibility to 

 us and to his audiences. 



Rajah easily and quickly learned to ride a tricycle, and guide 

 it himself. But for his untimely death, through a remarkable 

 invasion of a microscopic parasite (Balentidium coli) imported 

 from the Galapagos Islands by elephant tortoises, his mind 

 would have been developed much farther. Since his death, 

 in 1902, we have had other orang-utans that were successfully 

 taught to dine, but none of them entered into the business with 

 the same hearty zest which characterized Rajah, and made his 

 performances so interesting. 



We now come to a consideration of simian mental traits of 



