186 THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 



one and rubbed it on the cover and threw it away, but 

 soon returned to it and, getting hold of it upside down, 

 rubbed the wrong end. I turned it for him, and he 

 struck it till it lighted. Now he was himself again, 

 his whole manner showed the greatest joy and complai- 

 sance. He grasped the matches and struck at least a 

 dozen.^^ * 



H. Leutemann contributes this about an orang- 

 outang : " Most monkeys try to chew up whatever they 

 can get at, and seem to take pleasure only (?) in de- 

 stroying things, but ours, on the contrary, evidently tried 

 to put to its proper use whatever was given to him. To 

 my great surprise, he attempted to put on a pair of 

 gloves, and, although he could not tell right from left, it 

 proved that he knew what they were for. He supported 

 himself on a light walking cane, and when it bent under 

 him, made ridiculous motions to right it again.'^ f 

 Brehm tells of a chimpanzee: " After eating he at once 

 begins to clean up. He holds a stick of wood in front 

 of him or puts his hands in his master's slippers and 

 slides about the room, then takes a cloth and scrubs 

 the floor. Scouring, sweeping, and dusting are his 

 favourite occupations, and when he once gets hold of 

 the cloth he never wants to give it up.'' 



The gorilla of which J. Falkenstein has given a 

 detailed description was remarkable for his delicacy 

 in eating: "He would take up a cup or glass with the 

 greatest care, using both hands to carry it to his mouth, 

 and set it down so carefully that I do not recall having 

 lost a single piece of crockery through him, though 

 we had never tried to teach him the use of such vessels, 



* Thiercharaktere. No. 3, Affen, (iartenlaubo. 1862, p. 87. 

 f IT. Leutemann, Ein gebildeter Orang-Utang, Gartenlaube, 

 1862. 



