156 UNGKA APE. 



genus. If it be true, as I have heard asserted, 

 that intelligence is written in legible characters 

 on the OS frontis of the monkey tribe, I beg to 

 add, that mischief and cunning also beam in 

 their eye. 



One instance of a very close approximation 

 to, if it may not be considered absolutely an 

 exercise of, the reasoning faculty, occurred 

 in this animal. Once or twice I lectured 

 him on taking away my soap continually from 

 the washing-place, which he would remove, for 

 his amusement, from that place, and leave it 

 about the cabin. One morning 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 

 he had taken it. There was certainly some- 

 thing more than instinct in that action : he 

 evidently betrayed a consciousness of having 



