304 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



knots, and overcome other obstacles when they have once seen how 

 to set about it; but they also invent means to attain similar ends. 

 A female baboon, which I brought up in my family, got hold of a 

 kitten with the intention of making a pet of it and mothering it, 

 but was scratched by the terrified foundling. The monkey carefully 

 examined the kitten's paws, pressed the claws forward, looked at 

 them from above, from beneath, and from the side, and then bit 

 them off to secure herself against further scratches. My brother 

 and I used to startle the same baboon by pouring a little heap of 

 powder on the ground in front of her, and setting it alight by means 

 of a piece of burning tinder. The sudden blazing up of the powder 

 gave our baboon such a fright every time that she screamed loudly 

 and sprang back as far as her tether would allow. After this trick 

 had been played upon her several times in succession, she protected 

 herself from further annoyance by beating the glowing tinder with 

 her hand till the spark was extinguished, and then eating up the 

 powder. In another case she conjured up fear and horror for her- 

 self. Like all monkeys without exception, she regarded creeping 

 things, and above all snakes, with a boundless horror which was 

 most amusing. We often teased her by putting a snake, live, dead, 

 or stuffed, into a broad tin box, which was handed to her closed. 

 After a time she knew the box and its contents perfectly, but her 

 curiosity always mastered her, and she opened it every time, to run 

 away screaming directly afterwards. 



Not content with recognizing causes really present, this monkey, 

 when she suffered any annoyance, sought for probable ones. Some- 

 thing or someone must bear the blame of her discomfort. Thus her 

 anger was directed against the first person who came in sight. If 

 she was chastised, she was not angry with her master and keeper, 

 but with anyone else who was present during her punishment; such 

 a one must have been the cause of the harsh treatment she received 

 from her usually kind master. She had thus exactly the same 

 suspicions as small-minded human beings are apt to have in like 

 circumstances. 



Notwithstanding her own extreme sensitiveness to any punish- 

 ment, even if only threatened, and also to quizzing and teasing, the 



