58 STUDIES IN LIFE AND SENSE. 



series of threatening gestures. The body was given him, and there- 

 after he retreated, bearing it away with every expression of sorrow in 

 his arms. The Gibbons are said to attend carefully to injured com- 

 panions, but to take no notice of dead friends. A monkey has also 

 been known to extend a cord to another which had fallen overboard 

 from a vessel. I observed that when one of their dead companions 

 was shown to the remaining occupants of my cage, they did not 

 appear to be frightened, but seemed to regard the dead body with 

 indifference, and to exhibit very little curiosity on seeing the still 

 form of their companion. When, however, one of the family was 

 ailing, the others paid it a great amount of attention, not always, 

 so far as I could see, of a friendly or sympathetic nature. When 

 " Paddy," the capuchin, was ill, and in fact just before his demise, 

 his friends appeared to me to endeavour to raise him from the 

 recumbent posture in which he lay. Whether this was done in 

 anxiety for the sufferer, or from mere curiosity, I am unable to say. 

 Perhaps both ideas animated the survivors in their attentions to their 

 sick friend. 



On one occasion I observed in " Cetchy," the sooty mangabey, a 

 singular example of what I conclude may legitimately be called the 

 reasoning faculty in the truest sense of that term. Seeing his anxiety 

 to obtain a small piece of apple which I held in my hand, I resolved 

 to test his powers of reason and of discrimination in the following 

 way. I showed him the piece of apple, and as he tried to grasp it 

 I allowed it to slip down the sleeve of my coat, after the familiar 

 fashion of the childish conjuring trick. " Cetchy " viewed the dis- 

 appearance of the apple with surprise, and minutely examined my 

 hand unclosing my fingers, to see if I had concealed it therein. 

 Allowing the morsel to again come into view, but being careful to 

 avoid showing its place of concealment, I again passed it up my 

 sleeve. " Cetchy " again narrowly examined my hand, turning it 

 over so as to see the back of the hand, but of course without success. 

 The peculiar dissatisfied grunt with which "Cetchy" greeted his 

 want of success was both characteristic and amusing. I then 

 repeated the operation for the third time, when " Cetchy " at once, 

 and without examining my hand again, passed his hand into my 

 sleeve, and extracted from its hiding-place the coveted morsel, which 

 I may add was entirely concealed from the monkey's view. As time 

 passe^l, it is important to note that " Cetchy " did not trouble himself 

 to investigate the hands in search of the missing apple. Repetition 

 of the trick acquainted him with its rationale, and his hand went 

 directly to the sleeve for the coveted morsel. In this case we may, I 

 think, safely conclude that the hiding-place of the morsel was first 

 detected simply by an exercise of that common and tacit " reason " 

 through which we ourselves gain a knowledge of the unknown. In 



