THE BRUISED SERPENT 173 
it will most nearly resemble those of the lower 
animals. 
Darwin, on the slightest evidence, affirms that 
monkeys display an instinctive or inherited fear of 
snakes. There are many who would think any 
further inquiry into the matter superfluous; for, 
they would argue, if monkeys fear snakes in that 
way, then assuredly we, developed monkeys, must 
regard them with a feeling identical in character 
and origin. To be able thus to skim with the 
swallow’s grace and celerity over dark and possibly 
unfathomable questions is a very engaging accom- 
plishment, and apparently a very popular one. 
What is done with ease will always be done with 
pleasure; and what can be easier or more agreeable 
than to argue in this fashion: “Fear of snakes is 
merely another example of historical memory, re- 
calling a time when man, like his earliest ancestors, 
the anthropoid apes, was sylvan and solitary; a 
mighty climber of trees whose fingers were fre- 
quently bitten by bird-nesting colubers, and who 
was occasionally swallowed entire by colossal 
serpents of arboreal habits.” 
The instinctive fear of enemies, although plainly 
traceable in insects, with some other creatures low 
in the organic scale, is exceedingly rare among the 
higher vertebrates; so rare indeed as to incline 
any one who has made a real study of their actions 
to doubt its existence. It is certain that zoo- 
logical writers are in the habit of confusing in- 
stinctive or inherited with traditional fear, the 
