THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



43 



these orang-outangs had been instructed by the 

 negro ; but, actually is barefaced enough to state, 

 that they had performed spontaneously most of 

 the feats recited. " These animals/' he remarks, 

 " have the instinct of sitting at table like men. 

 They eat every kind of food without distinction. 

 They use a knife, a fork, or a spoon, to cut or 

 lay hold of what is put on the plate. They drink 

 wine and other liquors. We carried them aboard. 

 At table, when they wanted anything, they signified 

 as much to the cabin boy; and when the boy 

 refused to give them what they demanded, they 

 sometimes became enraged, seized him by the arm, 

 bit, and threw him down/' Now, mind astonished 

 reader, most of what has just been stated, was the 

 effect of instinct, not of instruction. 



A man, weak enough to put any faith in such 

 phenomena, and in such palpable exaggerations 

 of monkey achievements in foreign parts, may 

 easily be persuaded, that our herons here at home, 

 do actually thrust their legs through holes at the 

 bottom of the nests, during the period of incuba- 

 tion ; or, that the flamingo hatches her eggs on a 

 truncated kind of pyramid nest, with her legs 

 supporting the body on the outside, somewhat in 

 imitation o£ a little boy astride a barrel. I have 

 seen, somewhere in print, a representation of this 



