OUR FOUR-HANDED RELATIVES. 



55 



ponents of teetotalism ; but the truth is that bibulous 

 monkeys, like boy topers, owe their penchant to the 

 corrupting influence of their associates rather than to 

 an innate tendency. Ninety-nine per cent, of our me- 

 nagerie monkeys have crossed the Gulf of Mexico, if 

 not the ocean, and Jack Tar would rather forego his 

 own tipple than miss the fun of forcing grog or tobacco 

 upon his four-handed passengers. That they contract 

 a passion for such things proves not their but the an- 

 cient mariner's natural depravity, and that they indulge 

 the habit with temporary impunity demonstrates only 

 the marvellous faculty of adaptation which the quad- 

 rumana share with their two-handed cousins. It is true 

 that wild apes are sometimes caught by means of in- 

 toxicating baits ; but for such purposes the taste of the 

 alcohol has to be disguised by a liberal admixture of 

 saccharine elements, and I would wager any odds that 

 a new-caught monkey would prefer the sourest crab- 

 apple to a piece of the best Schweizer-ka.se or chewing- 

 tobacco. No danger will deter a monkey from grand 

 larceny if he gets a chance at a good store of candies 

 or preserves; it must be seen to be believed in what a 

 short time a little macaque will put himself outside of a 

 boxful of sugar-plums. Sugar is his Paracelsian quin- 

 tessence, the elixir of life and joy ; and I suspect that in 

 pursuit of that summum bonum he will swallow con- 

 siderable quantities of per se hateful fluids, just as many 

 a juvenile coffee-drinker would prefer his sweetening 



