44 THE MAN-LIKE APES I 



their faco3, in spite of resistance and cries. They 

 are gentle and affectionate in captivity full of 

 tricks and pettishness, like spoiled children, and 

 yet not devoid of a certain conscience, as an 

 anecdote, told by Mr. Bennett (1. c. p. 156), will 

 show. It would appear that his Gibbon had a 

 peculiar inclination for disarranging things in the 

 cabin. Among these articles, a piece of soap 

 would especially attract his notice, and for the 

 removal of this he had been once or twice scolded. 

 " One morning," says Mr. Bennett, " I was writing, 

 the ape being present in the cabin, when casting 

 my eyes towards him, I saw the little fellow 

 taking the soap. I watched him without his 

 perceiving that I did so : and he occasionally 

 would cast a furtive glance towards the place 

 where I sat. I pretended to write ; he, seeing 

 me busily occupied, took the soap, and moved 

 away with it in his paw. When he had walked 

 half the length of the cabin, I spoke quietly, 

 without frightening him. The instant he found 

 I saw him, he walked back again, and deposited 

 the soap nearly in the same place from whence 

 lie had taken it. There was certainly something 

 more than instinct in that action : he evidently 

 betrayed a consciousness of having done wrong 

 both by his first and last actions and what is 

 reason if that is not an exercise of it ? " 



The most elaborate account of the natural 



