66 
VERTEBRATA. 
surface ; touched my hand again ; and then applied his hps and teeth to the surface of the glass ; 
looked behind again, and then returning to gaze, passing his hands behind it, evidently to feel if 
there was any thing substantial there. A savage would have acted much in the same way, judg- 
ing from the accounts given of such experiments with the untutored natives of a wild and newly 
discovered land. 
" I broke a sugared almond in tAvo, and as he was eating one half, placed the other, while he was 
watching me, in a Httle card-box, which 1 shut in his presence : as soon as he had finished the 
piece of almond which he had, I gave him the box. With his teeth and hands he pulled off the 
cover, took out the other half, and then laid the box down. He ate the kernel of this almond, 
rejecting the greater part of the sugary paste in which it was incased, as if it had been a shell ; 
but he soon found out his error, for, another almond being presented to him, he carefully sucked 
oflF the sugar, and left the kernel. 
"I then produced a wine-glass, into which I poured some racy sherry, and further sweetened it 
with sugar. He watched me with some impatience, and when I gave him the glass, he raised it 
with his hands to his lips and drank a very little. It was not to his taste, however, for he set 
down the glass almost as full as he had taken it up; and yet he was thirsty, for I caused a teacup, 
with some sugared warm milk and water, to be handed to him, and he took the cup and drained 
it to the last drop. 
"I presented him with a cocoa-nut, to the shell of which some of the husk was still adhering : 
the tender bud was just beginning to push forth ; this he immediately bit off and ate. He then 
stripped off some of the husk with his teeth, swung it by the knot of adhering husk-fibers round 
his head, dashed it down, and repeatedly jumped upon it with all his weight. He afterward 
swung it about, and dashed it down with such violence, that, fearing his person might suffer, I 
had it taken away. A hole was afterward bored through one of the eyes, and the cocoa-nut was 
again given to him. He immediately held it up, with the aperture downward, applied his mouth 
to it, and sucked away at what milk there was with great glee. 
"As I was making notes with a pencil, he came up, inquisitively looked at the paper and pencil, • 
and then took hold of the latter. Before I gave it up, I drew the pencil into the case, foreseeing 
that he would submit the pencil-case to examination by the teeth. Immediately that he got it 
into his possession, he put the tip of his little finger to the aperture at the bottom, and, having 
looked at it, tried the case with his teeth. 
" While liis attention was otherwise directed, I had caused a hamper containing one of the 
Pythons, or great serpents, to be brought into the room, and placed on a chair not far from the 
kitchen-dresser. The lid was raised, the blanket in which the snake was enveloped was opened, 
and soon after Tommy came gamboling that way. As he jumped and danced along the dresser 
toward the basket, he was all gayety and life. Suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stopped, 
then cautiously advanced toward the basket, peered, or rather craned over it, and instantly, with a 
gesture of horror and aversion, and the cry of ' Hoo ! hoo !' recoiled from the detested object, 
jumped back as far as he could, and then sprang to his keeper for protection. He was again put 
down, his attention diverted from the basket, and after a while tempted to its neighborhood by 
the display of a fine rosy-cheeked apple, which was at last held on the opposite rim of the ham- 
per. But, no ! — he would evidently have done a good deal to get at the apple ; but the gulf 
wherein the serpent lay was to be passed, and, after some slight contention between hunger and 
horror, off he went, and hid himself. I then covered up the snake, and after luring him out with 
the apple, placed it on the blanket. No ! I then shut down the lid : still the same desire and 
the same aversion. I then had the hamper, with the lid down, removed from the chair on which 
it had been placed to another part of the room. The apple was again shown to Tommy, and 
placed on the ilid. He advanced cautiously, looking back at the empty chair, and then at the 
hamper : he advanced further with evident reluctance, but, when he approached near, he peered 
forward toward the basket, and, as if overcome by fright, again ran back, and hid himself under 
his cage. 
" I now caused the hamper with the serpent to be taken out of the room. Our friend soon 
oame forward. I showed him the apple, and placed it on the chair. He advanced a little, and I 
