162 



judging from the accounts given of such experiments with the un- 

 tutored natives of a vi'ild and newly discovered land. 



" I broke a sugared almond in two, and, as he was eating one half, 

 placed the other, while he was watching me, in a little card-box 

 which I shut in his presence — as soon as he had finished the piece 

 of almond which he had, I gave him the box. With his teeth and 

 hands he pulled off the cover, took out the other half, and then laid 

 the box down. He ate the kernel of this almond, rejecting the 

 greatest part of the sugary paste in wliich it was incased, as if it had 

 been a shell : but he soon found out his error ; for, another almond 

 being presented to him, he carefully sucked off the sugar and left 

 the kernel. 



I then produced a wine-glass, into which I poured some racy sherrj% 

 and further sweetened it with sugar. He watched me with some 

 impatience, and when I gave him the glass he raised it with his 

 hands to his lips, and drank a very little. It was not to his taste, 

 however, for he set down the glass, almost as full as he had taken 

 it up ; and yet he was thirsty, for I caused a tea-cup with some 

 sugared warm milk and water to be handed to him, and he took up 

 the cup and drained it to the last drop. 



" I presented him with a cocoa-nut, to the shell of which some of the 

 husk was still adhering: the tender bud was just beginning to push 

 forth — this he immediately bit off and ate. He then stripped off some 

 of the husk with his teeth, swung it by the knot of adhering husk- 

 fibres round his head, dashed it down, and repeatedly jumped upon 

 it with all his weight. He afterwards swung it about and dashed it 

 down with such violence that, fearing his person might suffer, I had 

 it taken away. A hole was afterwards bored through one of the 

 eyes, and the cocoa-nut was again given to him. He immediately 

 held it up with the aperture downwards, applied his mouth to it, and 

 sucked away at what milk there was with great glee. 



"As I was making notes with a pencil, he came up, inquisitively 

 looked at the paper and pencil, and then took hold of the latter. 

 Before I gave it up, I drew the pencil into the case, foreseeing that 

 he would submit the pencil-case to examination by the teeth. Im- 

 mediately that he got it into his possession, he put the tip of his 

 little finger to the aperture at the bottom, and having looked at it, 

 tried the case with his teeth. 



" While his attention was otherwise directed I had caused a 

 hamper containing one of the Pythons to be brought into the room 

 and placed on a chair not far from the kitchen dresser. The lid 

 was raised, the blanket in which the snake was enveloped was 

 opened, and soon after Tommy came gamboling that way. As he 

 jumped and danced along the dresser towards the basket, he was all 

 gaiety and life. Suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stopped — 



