Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human FacultyRomanes, George John
Science
Mental Evolution in Man: Origin of Human Faculty
Romanes, George John
Evolution; Psychology, Comparative
Further, I give an observation of my own (p. 445) on one terrier making
a gesture-sign to another. Terrier A being asleep in my house, and
terrier B lying on a wall outside, a strange dog, C, ran along below
the wall on the public road following a dog-cart. Immediately on seeing
C, B jumped off the wall, ran upstairs to where A was asleep, woke him
up by poking him with his nose in a determined and suggestive manner,
which A at once understood as a sign: he jumped over the wall and
pursued the dog C, although C was by that time far out of sight, round
a bend in the road.
On page 447 I give, on the authority of Dr. Beattie, the case of a
dog which saved his master’s life (who had fallen through the ice,
and was supporting himself with a gun placed across the opening), by
running into a neighbouring village, and pulling a man by the coat in
so significant a manner that he followed the animal and rescued the
gentleman. Many cases more or less similar to this one are recorded in
the anecdote books.
Concerning the use of gesture-signs by monkeys, I give on page 472 the
remarkable case recorded by James Forbes, F.R.S., of a male monkey
begging the body of a female which had just been shot. “The animal,”
says Forbes, “came to the door of the tent, and, finding threats of
no avail, began a lamentable moaning, and by the most expressive
gestures seemed to beg for the dead body. It was given him; he took it
sorrowfully in his arms and bore it away to his expecting companions.
They who were witnesses of this extraordinary scene resolved never
again to fire at one of the monkey race.”
Again, Captain Johnson writes of a monkey which he shot upon a tree,
and which then, as he says, “instantly ran down to the lowest branch of
a tree, as if he were going to fly at me, stopped suddenly, and coolly
put his paw to the part wounded, covered with blood, and held it out
for me to see. I was so much hurt at the time that it has left an
impression never to be effaced, and I have never since fired a gun at
any of the tribe. Almost immediately on my return to the party, before
I had fully described what had passed, a Syer came to inform us that
the monkey was dead. We ordered the Syer to bring it to us; but by the
time he returned the other monkeys had carried the dead one off, and
none of them could anywhere be seen” (p. 475).
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