Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/256

242 disgust from merisa and even from wine, a favorite beverage in ordinary time; the only things they accepted were lemons, of which each one ate an average of twenty pieces. In this wretched state they comported themselves like men, and would, doubtless, have enjoyed a sour herring if it had been possible to secure this antidote in the country of the Mahdi. In the evening they felt better, and were all right the next morning. I hoped this hard lesson would teach my pupils the advantages of abstinence, but, alas! I was mistaken once more in my life. They drank and reveled all the same, and from that day drank brandy with predilection. More than that, they claimed their rum every day as a privilege.

I took one of these baboons—it was a female—along to my home in Germany, because she had always proved to be of extraordinary sagacity, and actually exhibited a far greater intelligence than the average of the countrywomen of Thuringia, where I was living. Apes in general like other creatures, provided they submit to their caressing and fondling. My baboon at first concentrated her tenderness upon the children of the village, but, to her great sorrow, found no reciprocity. Then she turned to cats and dogs, and teased and tormented them in every way. A bright pussy, which the most of the time she carried in her arms, was tired one day of her company and attempted to escape. The ape strongly objected, and the kitten, in its struggles, scratched her in the shoulder. Gravely the baboon seized one of the paws of her pet, examined it carefully, and finding, probably, the sharp claws a dangerous superfluity in so small a being, bit them all off, one by one. We sometimes tried a practical joke on her by putting a little powder near the place where she was secured during part of the day, and flashing it by means of burning spunk. When the powder flashed, she screamed and jumped back as far as her chain permitted it. But she had very early found out the connection of things; the next time we threw the burning spunk near the powder, she rushed forward, extinguished it, and quietly ate the explosive, which she probably relished on account of its saltpetrous taste.

The aptitude of the Cynopithecini to distinguish between cause and effect is really remarkable. They are aware when they have done wrong, and expect punishment. An old crowned guenon, also called Chinese bonnet, living in captivity, once assaulted its attendant, lacerated his arm, and cut an artery. The animal being an old offender, the master ordered it to be shot. When the man charged with carrying out the order approached the cage of the ape, the latter, apprehending his fate, retreated to the adjoining shanty serving as bedroom, which communicated with the cage by a door. Neither flatteries nor tempting titbits could move him to come out from there. The man then had dinner brought and placed in the front cage as usual, and walked off. As soon as he was out of sight, the monkey cautiously crawled out, took part of the food, and jumped back to his