CHARACTER 135 



This is, perhaps, the highest test of the affection of any 

 animal. I cannot affirm that such an act was genuine 

 benevolence, or an earnest of affection in a true sense of 

 the term ; but nothing except deep affection or abject fear 

 impels such actions in animals ; and certainly fear was not 

 his motive. 



There were others whom he liked and made himself 

 familiar with ; there were some that he feared, and others 

 that he hated ; but his manner towards me was that of 

 deep affection. It was not alone in return for the food he 

 received, for my boy gave him food more frequently than I 

 did, and many others from time to time fed him. His 

 attachment was like an infatuation that had no apparent 

 motive ; it was unselfish and supreme. 



The chief purpose of my living among the animals being 

 to study the sounds they utter, I gave strict attention to 

 those made by Moses. For a time it was difficult to 

 detect more than two or three distinct sounds, but as I 

 grew more and more familiar with them I could detect a 

 variety of them, and by constantly watching his actions and 

 associating them with his sounds I learned to interpret 

 certain ones to mean certain things. 



In the course of my sojourn with him I learned one 

 sound that he always uttered when he saw anything that 

 he was familiar with, — such as a man or a dog, — but he 

 could not tell me which of the two it was. If he saw any- 

 thing strange to him, he could tell me ; but not so that I 

 knew whether it was a snake, or a leopard, or a monkey ; 

 yet I knew that it was some strange creature. I learned a 

 certain word for food, hunger, eating, etc., but he could not 



