The Universal KinshipMoore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Philosophy
The Universal Kinship
Moore, J. Howard (John Howard)
Evolution; Human beings; Sociology
Orphan monkeys, according to Brehm, are often adopted by the tribe,
and carefully looked after by the other monkeys, both male and
female. The great mass of human beings, who know about as much about
the real emotional life of monkeys as wooden Indians do, are
inclined to pass over lightly all displays of feeling by these
people of the trees. But the poet knows, and the prophet knows, and
the world will one day understand, that in the gentle bosoms of
these wild woodland mothers glow the antecedents of the same
impulses as those that cast that blessed radiance over the lost
paradise of our own sweet childhood. The mother monkey who gathered
green leaves as she fled from limb to limb, and frantically stuffed
them into the wound of her dying baby in order to stanch the cruel
rush of blood from its side, all the while uttering the most pitiful
cries and casting reproachful glances at her human enemy, until she
fell with her darling in her arms and a bullet in her heart, had in
her simian soul just as genuine mother-love, and love just as
sacred, as that which burns in the breast of woman.
The affection of monkeys is not confined to the love of the mother
for her child, but exists among the different members of the same
tribe, and extends even to human beings, especially to those who
make any pretensions to do to them as they would themselves be done
by. The monkey kept by Romanes, already referred to, became so
attached to his master that he went into the wildest demonstrations
of joy whenever his master, after an absence, came into the room.
Standing on his hind-legs at the full length of his chain, and
reaching out both hands as far as he could reach, he screamed with
all his might. His joy was so hysterical that it was impossible to
carry on any kind of conversation until he had been folded in his
master’s arms, when he immediately grew quiet.
‘After I took this monkey back to the Zoological Gardens,’ says
Romanes, ‘and up to the time of his death, he remembered me as
well as the day he was returned. I visited the monkey-house about
once a month, and whenever I approached his cage he saw me with
astounding quickness—indeed, generally before I saw him—and ran
to the bars, through which he thrust both hands with every
expression of joy. When I went away he always followed me to the
extreme end of the cage, and stood there watching me as long as I
remained in sight.’
The following account of the attachment of a male monkey for his
murdered consort is a pitiful tale of human inhumanity and of simian
tenderness and devotion:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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