64 ANIMAL SKETCHES. CHAP. 



Whence arose so much lamentation that it had to be unsewn 

 and taken to pieces. Mr. Wallace then gave the little 

 fellow as a companion a young Macaque monkey of about 

 his own age. The difference between the two, he remarks, 

 was very curious. "The Mias, like a very young baby, 

 lying on its back, quite helpless, rolling lazily from side to 

 side, stretching out all four hands into the air, wishing to 

 grasp something, but hardly able to guide its fingers to 

 any definite object, and when dissatisfied opening wide its 

 almost toothless mouth, and expressing its wants by a most 

 infantine scream ; the little monkey, on the other hand, in 

 constant motion running and jumping about wherever it 

 pleased, examining everything around it, seizing hold of 

 the smallest objects with the greatest precision, balancing 

 itself at the edge of the box, or running up a post, and 

 helping itself to anything eatable that came in its way. 

 There could hardly be a greater contrast ; and the baby 

 Mias looked more baby-like by comparison." Poor little 

 baby Mias ! I am sorry to say it did not live long, but 

 died of an intermittent fever about three months after the 

 death of its mother. 



Now when we read these stories of little apes, we seem 

 (do we not ?) almost to be hearing tales of little human 

 children. We might almost say, They have all the vices 

 and some of the virtues of childhood. The baby boy 

 and the baby Mias, the little girl and the young chim- 

 panzee are, in fact, much more like each other in character 

 than the savage male gorilla is like a respectable green- 

 grocer or old Mrs. Mias is like Mrs. Smith. In early 

 childhood there is not much to choose between the pro- 

 spective bishop and the future costermonger. Nay, not 

 improbably, the embryo costermonger is the sharper lad 

 of the two. It is a curious fact that, in Cape Colony 

 schools, the children of negroes and Kaffirs sometimes 



