English Prose: A Series of Related Essays for the Discussion and Practice of the Art of Writing
General
English Prose: A Series of Related Essays for the Discussion and Practice of the Art of Writing
English language -- Rhetoric; English language -- Style; English prose literature; Readers; Report writing -- Problems, exercises, etc.
We will now turn to the more intellectual emotions and faculties, which
are very important, as forming the basis for the development of the
higher mental powers. Animals manifestly enjoy excitement, and suffer
from ennui, as may be seen with dogs, and, according to Rengger, with
monkeys. All animals feel _Wonder_ and many exhibit _Curiosity_. They
sometimes suffer from this latter quality, as when the hunter plays
antics and thus attracts them; I have witnessed this with deer, and so
it is with the wary chamois, and with some kinds of wild ducks. Brehm
gives a curious account of the instinctive dread, which his monkeys
exhibited, for snakes; but their curiosity was so great that they could
not desist from occasionally satiating their horror in a most human
fashion by lifting up the lid of the box in which the snakes were kept.
I was so much surprised at his account that I took a stuffed and
coiled-up snake into the monkey-house at the Zoological Gardens, and the
excitement thus caused was one of the most curious spectacles which I
ever beheld. Three species of Cercopithecus were the most alarmed; they
dashed about their cages and uttered sharp signal cries of danger, which
were understood by the other monkeys. A few young monkeys and one old
Anubis baboon alone took no notice of the snake. I then placed the
stuffed specimen on the ground in one of the larger compartments. After
a time all the monkeys collected round it in a large circle, and,
staring intently, presented a most ludicrous appearance. They became
extremely nervous; so that when a wooden ball, with which they were
familiar as a plaything, was accidentally moved in the straw, under
which it was partly hidden, they all instantly started away. These
monkeys behaved very differently when a dead fish, a mouse, a living
turtle, and other new objects were placed in their cages; for though at
first frightened, they soon approached, handled, and examined them. I
then placed a live snake in a paper bag, with the mouth loosely closed,
in one of the larger compartments. One of the monkeys immediately
approached, cautiously opened the bag a little, peeped in, and instantly
dashed away. Then I witnessed what Brehm has described; for monkey after
monkey, with head raised high and turned on one side, could not resist
taking a momentary peep into the upright bag, at the dreadful object
lying quietly at the bottom. It would almost appear as if monkeys had
some notion of zoological affinities, for those kept by Brehm exhibited
a strange, although mistaken, instinctive dread of innocent lizards and
frogs. An orang, also, has been known to be much alarmed at the first
sight of a turtle.
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