CHIMPANZEES 255 



touching as it is strange. In this regard in- 

 stances are not few in which, in a few weeks, these 

 creatures are taught to sit and eat at table, using 

 knife, fork, and glass with scrupulous correctness. 

 It is further now a matter of almost common 

 knowledge that this remarkable type of monkey 

 so far resembles the most highly developed of his 

 kind as to experience the emotions prompting to 

 laughter and tears. Chimpanzees also sing and 

 dance, and have oral methods of communicating 

 definite meaning to others of their species. 

 Several West African friends of mine who have 

 owned chimpanzees are all agreed upon these 

 points, and further assure me that they early 

 learn to appreciate the custom of kissing, and cry 

 bitterly it scolded for a fault. Whether the joys 

 of osculation are mutual as between the chimp 

 and his human trainer, I was not told. 



But, after all, I do not see why this should 

 not be so. When one comes to consider the very 

 small differences between so-called monkey and 

 so-called man, much which we look upon in the 

 former as abnormal and uncanny provides itself, 

 to my mind, with a very clear and easy ex- 

 planation. Take, for example, the fact of the 

 possession of a tail. Even the highest form of the 

 man of to-day possesses at birth — and naturally 

 thereafter — attached to that large bone called 

 the sacrum several — three or four — apparently 

 unimportant vertebrae. They are, of course, 

 sunk beneath the skin, but cases have not been 

 wanting in the past of the birth of men-children 

 possessing free and discernible tails. But if we 



