THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 119 



goal. He seems to proceed magically, flying without 

 wings; he lives more in the air than on the branches." * 

 The yonng gorilla of which J. Falkenstein gives so 

 interesting a description, " performs so abandoned a 

 dance, falling over himself, whirling about, tumbling from 

 side to side, that the looker-on is forced to believe that 

 he has in some way become intoxicated. And in truth 

 he is drunk with pleasure, and by means of these antics 

 he proves his own strength to himself.'^ f The swing- 

 ing of monkeys is also a proof of the invention of plays 

 in the animal world. The explanation is not difficult, 

 seeing that the movements are often made intentionally 

 as the monkeys go about in the trees. The pleasure 

 they take in it seems to be unlimited. Pechuel-Loesche 

 tells us of one very clever ape that made himself a swing, 

 a case that would have surprised Descartes! A tame 

 long-tailed monkey that the members of the Loango Ex- 

 pedition kept at their station, a so-called Mbukubuku, 

 " was a devotee of swinging to an unprecedented degree, 

 and knew well how to satisfy his propensity. On any tree 

 that he could reach, on the roof, and on his own kennel 

 he found projections that served as supports, to which 

 he fastened his long chain by climbing over them or go- 

 ing round in such a way that it caught, and in this way 

 swung to his heart's content. He would go to work 

 with admirable deliberation and measure off a length of 

 his line sufficient for the purpose, and would repeat a 

 successful manner of fastening even after months/' X 



* See Alix's description of a gibbon, L'esprit de nos betes, 

 p. 496. 



f Loango Expedition, ii, p. 153. 

 X Ibid., iii, p. 243. 



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