ee an ae OS Pe ee 
1883.] The Kindred of Man. 121 
was a final stop, a hasty turn and an ignominious flight into the 
corner—generally, it is painful to say, behind Eve. We could 
only blush, we dared not blame him ; one nearer to us far than he, 
his namesake, under circumstances which brings the action home 
to each of us, had done the same. 
Many experiments were made to test the mental capacity of 
these animals, with quite fruitful results; the primary mental 
» . . . 
operations, and even some which involved a greater or less com- 
bination of ideas, were performed by them with facility ; indéed, 
it may be doubted if the undirected efforts of a human child of 
the same age, ignorant of language, could produce results of a 
much higher grade. 
A mirror being placed in the cage, the male, after cautiously 
investigating the figure reflected, turned it over, and finding 
nothing but bare boards, he placed it face downwards on the floor 
and executed a sort of war dance on the back. Having repeated 
this a number of times, the glass was held firmly before him; he 
then gave it more attention, at first attempting to drive away the 
figure he saw; at last a resemblance seemed to strike him, and 
after performing a variety of antics, seemingly for the purpose of 
comparison, it was quite evident that he became aware of his 
own identity—and in this, perhaps, afforded a trace of that self 
Consciousness which conservative philosophy allows only to the 
lordly intellect of man. In this case it is probable that he had 
“come accustomed to see a faint image of himself reflected from 
the glass front of his cage. 
Perhaps, though, the most striking evidence of their power of 
reasoning was given when a dead snakewas taken into the room 
and shown to them. As is well known, monkeys have an intol- 
erable dread of snakes, and these were terrified beyond measure. 
They fled at once to the highest point of the cage, uttering their 
expressive cry of fear, and there they remained for hours, refusing 
to come down even at sight of their accustomed dish of food, 
and when at last they did so, it was with the greatest caution ; a 
slight movement in the straw covering the floor, was enough to 
_ Cause a panic, and it was some hours before they fully recovered 
equilibrium. Finally, when both were sitting quietly near the 
Blass front, the snake was suddenly shown to them on the out 
Side, but there, the object which had caused such terror in the 
Same room, was powerless; the glass which they themselves could 
