CHAPTEE XXV. 



USE OP CLOTHING AND SH.ELTEE. 



ONE of the mistakes committed by those who are perpetually 

 endeavouring to differentiate man from other animals is to 

 assert that man is the only animal that wears clothing or 

 dress ; the fact being, as is, or ought to be, well known, that 

 many savage races live habitually in a state of absolute 

 nudity, whereas and this circumstance is less likely to be 

 familiar certain of the lower animals either construct rude 

 clothing for themselves or make use of that provided by 

 man. No clothing is worn by the Andaman Islanders 

 (Owen). I have myself seen large bodies of Egyptian fel- 

 lahs in a state of absolute nudity labouring on public works 

 along the line of the Alexandria and Cairo Eailway. Naked- 

 ness, the non-use of clothes, also characterises the wolf 

 children of India, as well as other forms of brute, beast or 

 wild children. Of an Indian wolf-child Gerhardt tells us, 

 ' He never kept on any clothing ; ' and of another, * Clothes 

 he would never wear, but tore them up into fine shreds/ 

 And, lastly, even in civilised life nudity is a common propen- 

 sity in the human idiot and lunatic, as well as in various 

 other conditions of disease, such as fevers. 



On the other hand, ' A friend of mine,' says a corre- 

 spondent of ' Nature,' ' had a tame baboon which .... 

 wrapped itself in a sheepskin like a Kaffir.' Another baboon 

 used leaves or mats as a covering for its head and body 

 (Nichols). Monkeys exposed to cold use wraps besides 

 'cuddling' each other for mutual warmth (Cassell). The 

 young soko c covers herself with a mat to sleep,' according 

 to Livingstone. Others of the anthropoid apes wear man's 



