iv. COUSIN SARAH. 61 



office he ran towards them, went from one to the other, 

 shook one of them, bit the leg of another, seized the jacket 

 of a third with the right hand, and with the left gave him 

 a sound box on the ear ; in short, he played the wildest 

 pranks." A learned zoologist who visited, for grave 

 scientific purposes, a chimpanzee that lived in our London 

 Zoo, says of this little fellow : " He showed a great dis- 

 position to play with me, jumping on his lower extremities 

 opposite me like a child, and looking at me with an 

 expression indicating a wish for a game at romps. I confess 

 I complied," he naively adds, " and a capital game we had." 

 Would you not like to have caught the distinguished 

 zoologist romping with Tommy the Chimpanzee ? I should. 

 But if you think any the worse of him for doing so, I hope 

 you may live to grow wiser. 



When he was tired of the game Mr. Broderip tried a 

 very interesting experiment. Many of us have an instinc- 

 tive dread of snakes. By an instinctive dread I do not 

 mean fear arising from the knowledge that snakes are 

 harmful, but a nameless and inexplicable horror that seems 

 part of our very being. The apes share with us this 

 instinctive dread, as Mr. Broderip proved in the case of 

 this chimpanzee. For while Tommy's attention was 

 directed elsewhere, a hamper containing a large python 

 was brought in and placed on a chair near the dresser. 

 The lid was raised, and the snake disclosed to view. Soon 

 Tommy came gambolling that way. "As he jumped and 

 danced along the dresser towards the basket he was all 

 gaiety and life ; suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, 

 stopped, and cautiously advanced towards the basket, 

 peered or rather craned over it, and instantly, with a 

 gesture of horror and aversion and the cry of ' hoo ! hoo ! ' 

 recoiled from the detested object, jumped back as far as he 

 could, and then sprang to his keeper for protection." 



