CAPTURE OF AARON 145 



the memory of Moses that I should say this, nor does it 

 lessen my affection for him. Our passions are not moved 

 by visible forces nor measured by fixed units. They dis- 

 dain all laws of logic, spurn the narrow bounds of reason, 

 and conform to no theory of action. 



As soon as I saw this little ape I expressed a desire to 

 own him. So the trader in charge bought him and pre- 

 sented him to me. As it had been intended that he should 

 be the friend and ally of Moses, although not his brother, 

 I conferred upon him the name of Aaron. The two names 

 are so intimately associated in history that the mention of 

 one always suggests the other. 



Aaron was captured in the Esyira jungle by the hunters, 

 about one day's journey from the place where I secured 

 him ; and with this event began a series of sad scenes in 

 the brief but varied life of this little hero such as seldom 

 come within the experience of any creature. 



At the time of his capture his mother was killed in the 

 act of defending him from the cruel hunters. When she fell 

 to the earth, mortally wounded, this brave little fellow stood 

 by her trembling body defending it against her slayers, until 

 he was overcome by superior force, seized by his captors, 

 bound with strips of bark, and carried away into cap- 

 tivity. No human can refrain from admiring his conduct 

 in. this act, whether it was prompted by the instinct of self- 

 preservation or by a sentiment of loyalty to his mother, for 

 he was exercising that prime law of nature which actuates 

 all creatures to defend themselves against attack, and his 

 wild, young heart throbbed with sensations like to those 

 of a human under similar ordeal. 



