Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/541

Rh, which were sometimes annoying, than to put snake-skins under the objects I wished him to respect. The device succeeded admirably. It was to the same mandrill I once showed a prospectus of Semper's "Journey to the Philippine Islands," in which there was a picture of a holuthuria. At the unexpected view of this sea-horn, the mandrill made a jump and struck the ground with his hands, while his hair stood out and his body trembled from head to foot. The rhesus gave me a yet more striking example of this horror. I had received a large python, which I had brought into the room every day for a warm bath. After nine days, I had only to call out, "Bring in the serpent," for the monkey to disappear under the straw. Long after the serpent had been restored to health and the baths had been discontinued, the repetition of the order would set Molly a-trembling at any time.

Perty says that dogs are the only animals capable of reading human physiognomy; but one has only to possess monkeys and be acquainted with them to know that they too can read it better than children can. I except New World monkeys, which have little or none of the faculty. I had a little female Java macacus, of an exceedingly pleasant and timid nature. I had only to raise my voice in speaking to her, to arrest all her motions. When I returned into the room, she would follow me with her eyes, trying to read the expression of my face, and endeavoring to gain my sympathy by a low murmuring, going away or coming up to me according to the play of my features. If she saw me smile she would make a sound of gladness, clasp my knees and press against me, with murmuring lips and eyes gazing into mine. But, at the first frown or hard look, the macacus would drop down crying and run away. The rhesus responded in a somewhat similar manner to my expressions.

Monkeys have a passion for cleanliness. Once on your knees, they will pick you from head to foot, not letting a wrinkle escape, and all with the most serious air. My rhesus could not endure badly dressed persons. He was always ready to defend me, and to spring upon any one who would touch me with the tip of his finger. He had no respect for children, but acted as if he took them to be large monkeys, and would sometimes attack them when they were too saucy. Some of the other monkeys, however, seemed to be quite fond of them. The rhesus appreciated the inferiority of my servants to myself, and would become angry at any one of them when I reprimanded him, his anger being modulated according to my tone, and sometimes leading him to acts. He co-operated in all my gestures when I acted as if I were beating a man or a dog, but if it were another monkey that was threatened he took its side. The feeling of compassion is not strange to monkeys. They will defend and protect threatened individuals, sometimes offering their own bodies as a shield. They extend their commiseration to animals of another species. The rhesus became furious