70 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



the most curious spectacles which I ever beheld. Three species 

 of Cercopithecus were the most alarmed; they dashed about their 

 cages, and uttered sharp signal cries of danger, which were under- 

 stood by the other monkeys. A few young monkeys and one ola 

 Anubis baboon alone took no notice of the snake. I then placed 

 the stuffed specimen on the ground in one of the larger com- 

 partments. After a time all the monkeys collected round It in 

 a large circle, and staring intently, presented a most ludicrous ap- 

 pearance. They became extremely nervous; so that when a 

 wooden ball, with which they were familiar as a plaything, was 

 accidentally moved in the straw, under which it was partly 

 hidden, they all instantly started away. These monkeys behaved 

 very differently when a dead fish, a mouse,'= a living turtle, and 

 other new objects were placed in their cages; for though at first 

 frightened, they soon approached, handled and examined them. I 

 then placed a live snake in a paper bag, with the mouth loosely 

 closed, in one of the larger compartments. One of the monkeys im- 

 mediately approached, cautiously opened the bag a little, peeped 

 in, and instantly dashed away. Then I witnessed what Brehm has 

 described, for monkey after monkey, with head raised high and 

 turned on one side, could not resist taking a momentary peep 

 into the upright bag, at the dreadful object lying quietly at the 

 bottom. It would almost appear as if monkeys had some notion 

 of zoological affinities, for those kept by Brehm exhibited a 

 strange, though mistaken, instinctive dread of innocent lizards 

 and frogs. An orang, also, has been known to be much alarmed 

 at the first sight of a turtle.'" 



The principle of Imitation is strong in man, and especially, as 

 I have myself observed, with savages. In certain morbid states 

 of the brain this tendency is exaggerated to an extraordinary 

 degree; some hemiplegic patients and others, at the commence- 

 ment of inflammatory softening of the brain, unconsciously 

 imitate every word which is uttered, whether In their own or in 

 a foreign language, and every gesture or action which is per- 

 formed near them." Desor"^ has remarked that no animal volun- 

 tarily imitates an action performed by man, until in the ascending 

 scale we come to monkeys, which are well known to be ridiculous 

 mockers. Animals, however, sometimes imitate each other's 

 actions: thus two species of wolves, which had been reared by 

 dogs, learned to bark, as does sometimes the jackal,'" but whether 



12 I have given a short account of their behavior on this occasion in 

 my 'Expression of the Emotions," p. 43. 



Js W. C. L. Maj-tin. 'Nat. Hist, of Mammalia,' 1841, p. 405. 



" Dr. Bateman 'On Apasia,' 1870, p. 110. 



"•'Quoted by Vog-t, 'Memoire sur les Microcephales,' 1867, p. 168. 



M 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. 1. 

 p. 27. 



