* 
62 VERTEBRATA. 
and keeps them with her long after they are weaned. The male, on the contrarjr, chases them 
away as soon as they are capable of obtaining a living. 
So much appears to be well authenticated. The natives of the Gaboon country, where they 
seem to be most common, assert that these animals frequently unite to attack the elephant, lion, 
and other beasts of prey, with clubs and stones, especially if they approach their cabins. It is 
also said to be dangerous for individuals to venture alone into their domains. So far, the story is 
probable ; but when we are told that these animals bury their dead, and cover them in a manner 
to defend them from the hyenas ; that they dress gun-shot and other wounds with pounded herbs, 
and bind up the parts with strips of bark ; and, finally, that the males frequently carry off and 
make companions of young negresscs, whom they treat with great tenderness, so that some of them 
who have returned from this captivity expressed themselves extremely well satisfied with their 
adventures ; — we may well conclude that we have entered the regions of romance. 
The accounts of the chimpanzee in a state of captivity are full of interest. Butfon describes 
one which he saw, and which at that time he supposed to be the same as the orang, as follows : 
I have seen this animal give his hand to people who visited him, walking gravely with them as 
if one of them ; I have seen him seat himself at the table, unfold his napkin, wipe his mouth with 
it, use his knife and fork to eat with, and pour water into his glass and drink the health of those 
who visited him ; I have seen him take a cup and saucer, bring them to the table, put In the 
sugar, pour in the tea, allow it to cool before he drank it, and all this withoiit any other motion 
than a word or sign from his keeper, and often of his own accord. He was extravagantly fond of 
bxjnbons : he drank wine in small quantities, but preferred milk, or tea, or other mild drinks. 
" In captivity," he adds, " the chimpanzee, if one can believe what travelers say, can be as use- 
ful as the negroes. At Loango, a female chimpanzee had been seen to fetch water in a pitcher, 
and to bring wood from the forest ; she vvould also make beds, sweep, and assist the cook to turn 
the spit, &c. She once fell sick ; a physician bled her, and by so doing saved her life. A year 
after, being threatened with inflammation of the lungs, she was confined to her bed. When the 
same physician was called to attend her, she held out her arm to him, and made signs to him to 
bleed her." 
M. De Grandpre, an officer in the French marine, nearly a century since, having lived in , 
Angola two years, gives us the following particulars : "The intelligence of the chimpanzee is truly ^ 
wonderful : he sometimes walks upright, and leans upon the branch of a tree in the manner of a 
cane. The negroes are in great fear of him in his wild state; and not without reason, for he A 
often ill treats them when they meet him. They say that it is only from idleness that he re- 
frains from speaking, or perhaps from the fear of being made to work ; as they are confident 
thfit these animals can both talk and Avork like men, if they will. Of this the negroes are so 
strongly persuaded, that when they meet them they generally address them as if they were 
human beings. 
*' Notwithstanding all my efforts to procure an individual of this species, I have met with no 
success ; but I have seen a female on board a vessel, and wishing to measure and examine her, 
she allowed me to do it with great complaisance and evident interest. As it would be tedious to 
recount all that I learned of the intelligence of this animal, I will give only the most remarkable 
instances. She had been taught to heat the oven, using great discretion in her manner of putting 
in the wood, and watching narrowly that the coals should not fall and set the vessel on fire. She 
waited until she thought the oven sufficiently hot for baking, and then ran to tell the cook, who, 
sure of the sagacity of his assistant, hurried to put in his bread or cake, the animal never failing 
in a single instance to warn him at the proper time. 
"in turning the capstan, she assisted the sailors, and performed her part with more skill and 
strength than were showed by any of them. When the sails were to be unfurled, she went aloft 
with the sailors and assisted them in the work : she would have insisted upon performing the 
most dangerous services, if the men had allowed it. She tied the ropes as well as any of them ; 
and observing that the ends were tied to prevent their hanging down, she did the same to the 
ropes of which she was in charge. Her hand one day being caught between the bolt-rope and 
the yard, she disengaged it without making either outcry or grimace : when the work was fin- 
