THE PLAY OF ANIMALS. 169 



was something entirely new to me to see the monkeys 

 take lifeless objects for playthings, and, like children, 

 carefully put them to bed in their own sleeping boxes, as 

 well as care for them during the day. Isabella devoted 

 herself for a long time to a little canister, and Pavy 

 to a little crooked stick of wood which in his wild capers 

 he often hurled into the air. Once it flew too far and 

 was appropriated by Jack, and thereupon deadly enmity 

 ensued. As their chains were not long enough for them 

 to reach one another, there was nothing for them to do 

 but get as near together as possible and make horrible 

 faces while they scolded. Their mutual hatred contin- 

 ued until I gave Pavy back his stick. Later he took to 

 petting a musket ball, while Jack conceived a passion 

 for a thermometer. As soon as he was free and not 

 watched, he hurried to it and carried it off. He evi- 

 dently delighted in the shining glass, but handled it so 

 carefully that the instrument was never injured, even 

 when he took it up in trees and on the roof and had to 

 be coaxed down." * 



It is questionable whether there is any analogy to 

 play with dolls in such actions. At most, the putting 

 things to bed and the care taken of the thermometer 

 are all that could be considered so; but so long as 

 better examples are wanting, these carry very little con- 

 viction. 



But there is another and more important phase of 

 the subject. When we see little girls playing foster 

 mother to their younger brothers and sisters, and even 

 to grown ones, and when we see, too, how lonely women 

 lavish maternal care on lapdogs, which is really play- 

 ing, we are not surprised at something of the same kind 



* Loango Expedition, iii, p. 246. 



