THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN 103 



instinctive dread which his monkeys exhibited for snakes; 

 but their curiosity was so great that they could not desist 

 from occasionally satiating their horror in a most human 

 fashion, by lifting up the lid of the box in which the snakes 

 were kept. I was so much surprised at his account, that I 

 took a stuffed and coiled-up snake into the monkey-house at 

 the Zoological Gardens, and the ^ excitement thus caused 

 was one of 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 understood by the other monkeys. A 

 few young monkeys and one old Anubis baboon alone took 

 no notice of the snake. I then placed the stuffed specimen 

 on the ground in one of the larger compartments. After 

 a time all the monkeys collected round it in a large circle, 

 and, staring intently, presented a most ludicrous appearance. 

 They became extremely nervous; so that when a wooden 

 ball, with which they were familiar as a plaything, was ac- 

 cidentally 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 liv- 

 ing turtle, and other new objects were placed in their cages; 

 for, though at first frightened, they soon approached, han- 

 dled, 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 immediately ap- 

 proached, 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 mon- 

 keys 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 



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

 ojfiv "Expression of the Emotions," p. 43. 



