MENTAL POWERS. 81 



in which the snakes were kept. I was so much surprised 

 at his account that I took a stuffed and coiled-up snake 

 into the monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens, and the 

 excitement thus caused was one of the most curious spec- 

 tacles which I ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus 

 were the most alarmed ; they dashed about their cages and 

 uttered sharp signal cries of danger, which were understood 

 by the other monkeys. A few young monkeys and one old 

 Anubis baboon alone took no notice of the snake. I then 

 placed the stuffed specimen on the ground in one of the 

 larger compartments. After a time all the monkeys col- 

 lected round it in a large circle, and, staring intently, pre- 

 sented a most ludicrous appearance. They became ex- 

 tremely nervous; so that when a wooden ball, with which 

 they were familiar as a plaything, was accidentally moved 

 in the straw, under which it was partly hidden, they all in- 

 stantly started away. These monkeys behaved very dif- 

 ferently when a dead fish, a mouse,* a living turtle, and 

 other new objects were placed in their cages; for though at 

 first frightened, they soon approached, handled and ex- 

 amined them. I then placed a live snake in a paper bag, 

 with the mouth loosely closed, in one of the larger com- 

 partments. One of the monkeys immediately approached, 

 cautiously opened the bag a little, peeped in, and instantly 

 dashed away. Then I witnessed what Brehm has described, 

 for monkey after monkey, with head raised high and turned 

 on one side, could not resist taking a momentary peep into 

 the upright bag, at the dreadful object lying quietly at the 

 bottom. It would almost appear as if monkeys had some 

 notion of zoological affinities, for those kept by Brehm ex- 

 hibited a strange, though mistaken, instinctive dread of 

 innocent lizards and frogs. An orang, also, has been 

 known to be much alarmed at the first sight of a turtle, f 

 The principle of Imitation is strong in man, and espe- 

 cially, as I have myself observed, with savages. In certain 

 morbid states of the brain this tendency is exaggerated to an 

 extraordinary degree; some hemiplegic patients and others, 

 at the commencement of inflammatory softening of the brain,, 

 unconsciously imitate every word which is uttered, whether 



*I have given a short account of their behavior on this occasion in 

 my " Expression of the Emotions," p. 43. 



\ W. C. L. Martin, " Nat. Hist, of Mammalia," 1841, p, 405. 



