80 



GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



down from the table and sit on the floor. This 

 humiliation he did not like at best, but when the 

 boy would grin at him for it, he would resent it 

 with as much temper as if he had been poked 

 with a stick. He certainly was sensitive on this 

 point, and evinced an undoubted dislike to being 

 laughed at. 



Another habit that Moses had was putting his 

 fingers in the dish to help himself He had to be 

 watched all the time to prevent this, and seemed 

 unable to grasp any reason why he should not be 

 allowed to do so. He always appeared to think my 

 spoon, knife and fork were better than his own 

 spoon. On one occasion he persisted in begging 

 for my fork until I gave it to him. He dipped it 

 into his soup, held it up, and looked at it as if disap- 

 pointed. He again stuck it into his soup, and then 

 examined it, as if to see how I lifted my food with 

 it. He did not seem to notice that I used it in 

 lifting meat instead of soup. After repeating this 

 three or four times, he licked the fork, smelt it, and 

 then deliberately threw it on the floor, as if to say, 

 " That's a failure." He leaned over and drank his 

 soup from the plate. 



The only thing that he cared much to play with 

 was a tin can that I kept some nails in. For this 

 he had a kind of mania, and never tired of trying to 

 remove the lid. When given the hammer and a 

 nail, he knew what they were for, and would set to 

 work to drive the nail into the floor of the cage or 

 the table ; but he hurt his fingers a few times, and 



