by Adrien Paul
CHAPTER IX.
THE CHIMPANZEE--IMPERFECT NEGRO, OR PERFECT APE--THE HARMONIES OFNATURE--A HANDFUL OF PAWS--A STONE SKIN--SEVENTEEN THOUSAND SPECTACLESON ONE NOSE--ANIMALCULAE--PELION ON OSSA--PTOLEMY--COPERNICUS TOGALILEO--METAPHYSICS AND COSMOGONIES--ISAIAH--A LIVE TIGER.
"The chimpanze or chimpanzee," says Buffon, the French naturalist, "ismuch more sagacious than the _ourang outang_, with which it has beeninaccurately confounded; it likewise bears a more marked resemblanceto the human being; the height is the same, and it has the sameaspect, members, and strength; it always walks on two feet, with thehead erect, has no tail, has calves to its legs, hair on its head, abeard on its chin, a face that Grimaldi would have envied, hands andnails like those of men, whose manners and habits it is susceptible ofacquiring."
Buffon knew an individual of the species that sat demurely at table,taking his place with the other guests; like them he would spread outhis napkin, and stick one corner of it into his button-hole just asthey did, and he was exceedingly dexterous in the use of his knife,fork, and spoon. Spectators were not a little surprised to see him goto a bed made for him, tie up his head in a pocket-handkerchief, placeit sideways on a pillow, tuck himself carefully in the bed-clothes,pretend to be sick, stretch out his pulse to be felt, and affect toundergo the process of being bled.
The naturalist adds that he is very easily taught, and may be made auseful domestic servant, at least as regards the humbler operations ofthe kitchen; he promptly obeys signs and the voice, whilst otherspecies of apes only obey the stick; he will rinse glasses, serve attable, turn the spit, grind coffee, or carry water. Add to his virtuesas a domestic, that he is not much addicted to chattering about thefamily affairs, has no followers, and is very accommodating in thematter of wages.
It was neither more nor less than a chimpanzee that Fritz had caughtin the dark at Falcon's Nest.
"Now then, old fellow," said he, "you will help us to clear up thismysterious affair."
The caged stranger made no reply to this observation; Willis and Jackthen questioned him, the one in English and the other in French.
Still no reply.
He did not submit, however, to be interrogated quietly; on thecontrary, his struggles to get away were most vigorous, so much sothat Fritz adopted the precaution of binding him.
"If it had been one of our sailors," said Willis, "he would haverecognized my voice long ago."
"Who are you?" asked one.
"Where do you come from?" inquired another.
"Do not attempt to escape," said a third.
"We mean you no harm; on the contrary, we are friends, disposed to doyou good if we can."
"If all his brothers and sisters are as talkative as himself,"remarked Jack, "they must be a very amusing sort of people."
"He can walk at all events," said Fritz giving him a smart push.
The chimpanzee fell flat on the floor.
"It appears, sir, that you are determined to have your own way, wemust therefore wait till daylight."
An hour passed in polyglot expostulations with the stranger on thescore of his obstinacy, but all to no purpose; to use a popularexpression, he was as dumb as the Doges. He deigned, however, to emptyat a single draught a calabash of Malaga that Willis gave him, butthere his condescension stopped.
The Pilot, who now encountered mosquitoes in all directions, madepreparations for smoking; the light he struck, however, instead ofclearing up the mystery, only perplexed them more and more; there laytheir new companion, stretched on the ground, staring at them with aludicrous grin.
If, on the one hand, it occurred to them this man was an animal, onthe other the animal was a man, and Buffon did not happen to be thereat the time to assign him officially a place in the former kingdom.
The next difficulty that presented itself was, how they were to gethim along; when they broke in the onagra, they ran a prong through hisear; in reducing the buffalo to subjection, they did not feel theslightest compunction in thrusting a pin through the cartilage of hisnose; then, in order to give elasticity to the legs of the ostrich,they yoked him to two or three other animals, and, willing orunwilling, he was compelled ultimately to yield obedience to the lordsof creation. But whether the creature before them was a lower order ofnegro or a higher order of ape, there was too great a resemblancebetween the captured and the capturers to admit of any of thesemethods of impulsion being adopted. It was, therefore, stretched on aplank, like a nabob in his palanquin, that the chimpanzee made hisfirst appearance at Rockhouse.
When the cavalcade arrived there, all the family, with the exceptionof Ernest and Frank, were still asleep. The first thing they did wasto clothe the creature they had captured in a sailor's pantaloons andjacket, with which he seemed rather pleased, and the result of thisoperation was, that he began to assume a less ferocious aspect, andbehave more respectfully towards his captors. All the family had satdown to breakfast, when Fritz and Jack, taking him by the hands, ledhim gravely into the gallery. A cord was attached to his legs,allowing him to walk, but was so arranged that he could not run.
On his appearance the young girls fled at once; and, more accustomedto drawing-rooms than the rude realities of savage life, Mrs.Wolston's first impulse was to do the same.
"Goodness gracious!" she cried with an air of alarm, "what horror isthat?"
"That, madam, is precisely what we have been anxious for the last twoor three hours to find out," replied Fritz.
"Does the creature speak?"
"Up till now, madam," replied Willis, "he has only opened his mouth toswallow my calabash of Malaga; beyond that, he has kept as close as apurser's locker."
When the first shock had passed, and the company had regained theirself-possession, Jack related, with his customary originality, theincidents of the nocturnal expedition, of which Fritz was theoriginator, leader, and hero. The ladies then, for the first time,were made acquainted with the doubts, fears, perplexities, andbattues, which, out of gallantry, they had hitherto been kept inignorance of. Becker then, having carefully investigated the creature,pronounced it to be (as we already know) a full-grown specimen of akind of ape, called by the Africans "the wild man of the woods," andby naturalists the _jocko_ or chimpanzee.
"It is naturally very savage," added Becker; "but this individualseems already to have received some degree of education."
As a proof of this, the chimpanzee seated himself amongst them verymuch at his ease; he scanned the faces surrounding him with an air ofcuriosity, and seemed to search for a particular countenance that itannoyed him not to find. Some fruit and nuts that were given him puthim in excellent humor.
"He has, without doubt, been on board some ship, wrecked on thecoast," said Wolston, "for I recollect having read that his kindredare only found in Western Africa and the adjacent islands; do you notrecognize him, Willis, to belong to the _Nelson_, like the plank ofthe other day?"
"No, sir."
"So much the better."
"We do not ship such cattle on board his Majesty's ships," added thePilot.
The girls, ashamed of their fear, now came peeping in at the door,and, seeing that nobody had been devoured, took refuge by the side oftheir mother.
"Look here, father," said Ernest, feeling the creature's crania,after having facetiously begged pardon for the liberty, "its head isprecisely like our own; that is very humiliating."
"Yes, my son, but his tongue and other organs are also exactly likeours, yet he cannot utter a word. His head is of the same form andproportion, but he does not for all that possess human intelligence.Is this not a very striking proof that mere matter, though perfectlyorganized, neither produces words nor thought; and that it requires aspecial manifestation of the Divine will to call these attributes intoexistence?"
"True; but, father, some writers say that apes have been observed toprofit by fires lighted in the forest, and have gone and warmedthemselves when the travellers left."
"That, my son, is instinct, nothing more; the operation o
f keeping upa fire, by throwing a few branches upon it, is exceedingly simple, buttheir instinct has never been known to rise to that amount ofintelligence."
"You recollect, father, that heathcock we saw some years agodisplaying his glossy plumage to the dazzled hens; is that not awell-marked proof of coquetry? and is not this coquetry an indicationof something more than mere instinct?"
"You will permit me to believe, my son, at least till the contrary hasbeen proved, that these actions to which you refer have nothing at allto do with coquetry. Those brilliant colors are designed for a purposeother than that which you suppose; they serve as signals to keep thecommunity together, or, in other words, they are a common centre roundwhich the hens may revolve."
"The transition from apes to heathcocks," remarked Jack, "appears tome somewhat abrupt."
"Not so abrupt as you think, Master Jack," said Wolston; "those whotake the trouble to study Nature, observe an admirable gradation andeasy progression from a simple to a complex organization. There is norace or species that is not connected by a perceptible link with thatwhich precedes and that which follows."
"What relation is there, for example," inquired Jack, "between anoyster and a horse?"
"No immediate relation certainly, but there are intermediate links bywhich the two are brought together: they may be regarded, however, asthe opposite extremes of the brotherhood--the two poles in the chainof existence. A horse bears even less resemblance to a turnip than toan oyster; a relationship may, nevertheless, be traced, step by step,between them, dissimilar as they are. There is the polypus, thatsingular product of Nature, which, regarded in one light, performs allthe functions of animal life, whilst, when regarded in another, it hasthe ordinary attributes of a plant; does this not clearly anddistinctly mark the transition from the vegetable to the animalkingdom? Again, certain species of worms blend the animal with theinsect tribe, those which are covered with a horny substance unitethem with the crustaceae. These approach fish on the one hand, andreptiles on the other, whilst reptiles in some species becomemoluscs."
"And what is a molusc?" inquired Willis.
"The term _molusc_ is applied by naturalists to creatures which haveno vertebrae, as for example, the cuttle fish and the oyster."
"I believe _you_, Mr. Wolston; but if I had asked Ernest or Jack, theywould have told me that it was a commodore or an admiral."
"Reptiles, I was going to say, are connected at one end of the chainwith moluscs by the slug, and at the other with fish by the eel. Fromflying-fish to birds the transition is by no means abrupt. Theostrich, whose legs are like goat's, and runs rather than flies,connects birds with quadrupeds; these again return to fish through thecetacea."
"Yes, but the interval between such creatures and man is still great."
"True; to connect the two would be a process replete withinsurmountable difficulties, and only possible to creative power. Theprojecting snout would have to be flattened, and the features ofhumanity imprinted upon it--that head bent upon the ground would haveto be directed upwards--that narrow breast would have to be flattenedout--those legs would have to be converted into flexible arms, andthose horny hoofs into nimble fingers."
"To accomplish which," remarked Frank, "God had only to say, 'Let itbe so.'"
"Assuredly; and as there is nothing incongruous in Nature, aseverything is admirably adapted for its purpose, as unity of design isperceptible in all things, as every effect proceeds from a cause, andbecomes a cause in its turn of succeeding effects, so God has willedthat there should be a chain of resemblance running through all hisworks, and the link that connects man with the animal kingdom--thehighest type of the mammiferous race, and the nearest approach tohumanity amongst the brutes--is the creature before you."
As if to illustrate this position, and prove his title to the placeawarded him, the chimpanzee quietly laid hold of Mr. Wolston's strawhat and stuck it on his crispy head.
"He is, perhaps, afraid of catching cold," said Jack, thrusting a matunder his feet.
"Compare birds with quadrupeds," continued Mr. Wolston, "and you willfind analogies at every step. Does the powerful and kingly eagle notresemble the noble and generous lion?--the cruel vulture, theferocious tiger?--the kite, buzzard, and crow preying upon carrion,hyenas, jackals, and wolves? Are not falcons, hawks, and other birdsused in the chase, types of foxes and dogs? Is the owl, which prowlsabout only at night, not a type of the cat? The cormorants and herons,that live upon fish, are they not the otters and beavers of the air?Do not peacocks, turkeys, and the common barn-door fowl bear astriking affinity to oxen, cows, sheep, and other ruminating animals?"
During these remarks, Jack's monkey, Knips, had found its way into thegallery, and, observing the newcomer, went forward to accost him as ifan old friend; the latter, however, uttered a menacing cry, and wasabout to seize Knips with evidently no amiable design, but wasprevented by the cords that bound his legs. Knips leaped upon the backof one of the boys, and there, as if on the tower of an impregnablefortress, commenced making a series of grimaces at the chimpanzee,these being the only missiles within reach that he could launch at hisrelation. The enemy retorted, and kept up a smart fire of likeammunition.
"It appears," remarked Mrs Wolston, "that apes are something like men:the great and the little do not readily amalgamate."
"We must make them amalgamate," said Jack, taking one of Knips's paws,whilst Ernest held that of the chimpanzee; thus they compelled them toshake hands, but with what degree of cordiality we are unable tostate.
"You ought to oblige them now to take an oath of fealty," said Mrs.Wolston.
"Chimpanzee," said Jack, speaking for Knips, "I promise always totreat you in future with smiles, delicacies, and respect."
"Knips," replied the wild man of the woods, through the organs ofErnest, "I promise to have for you only the most generous intentions;to share with you the nuts I may have occasion to crack, that is, bygiving you the shells and keeping the kernel; I promise, moreover, notto immolate you at the altar of my just rage, unless it is impossiblefor me to avoid an outburst of temper."
"Now the embrace of peace."
"Ah, madam," said Jack, "you must excuse that ceremony, theirfriendship is too new for such intimacy, and Knips don't much likebeing bitten."
"Need we other proofs," remarked Becker, when the scene between themonkeys was concluded, "that everything has been premeditated,weighed, and calculated? It was necessary for that most arid country,Arabia, that we should have a sober animal, susceptible of existing along time without water, and capable of treading the hot sands of thedesert. God has accordingly given us the camel."
"And the dromedary," remarked Ernest.
"So everywhere," continued Becker; "and add to these evidences ofDivine wisdom the brilliant colors, the silken furs, the goldenplumage, and the ever-varying forms, yet, in all this diversity,there is unison--a harmony. Like the various objects which a cleverartist introduces into his sketch, they are placed without uniformity,but still with reference to their effect upon each other, and so tothe unity of the general design."
"Therefore," remarked Ernest, "we have an animal whose skin is ofstone, which it throws off annually to assume a new one--whose fleshis its tail and in its feet--whose hair is found inside in itsbreast--whose stomach is in its head, which, like the skin, is renewedevery year, the first function of the new being to digest the oldone."
Here the Pilot manifested some symptoms of incredulity.
"That is not all, Willis," continued Ernest, "the animal of which Ispeak carries its eggs in the interior of its body till they arehatched, and then transfers them to its tail. It has pebbles in itsstomach, can throw off its limbs when they incommode it, and replacethem with others more to its fancy. To finish the portrait, its eyesare placed at the tip of long flexible horns."
"Do you really mean me to believe that yarn?" inquired Willis.
"Yes, Willis, unless you intend to deny the existence of lobsters."
"Lobsters! Ah! you ar
e talking of them, are you!"
"Have not," continued Ernest, "six thousand three hundred andsixty-two eyes been counted in one beetle? sixteen thousand in a fly?and as many as thirty-four thousand six hundred in a butterfly? Ofcourse, facets understood."
"Supposing these facets myope or presbyte," observed Jack, "that givesseventeen thousand three hundred and twenty-five pairs of spectacleson one nose!"
"How wonderfully varied are the forms of Nature. If, from the mastodonand the fossil mammoth, to which Buffon attributes five or six timesthe bulk and size of the elephant, we descend to those animalculae, ofwhich Leuwenhoek estimates that a thousand millions of them would notoccupy the place of an ordinary grain of sand."
Here Willis lost all patience and left the gallery, whistling asusual, under such circumstances, the "Mariner's March."
"Malesieu has detected animals by the microscope twenty-seven timessmaller than a mite. A single drop of water under this instrumentassumes the aspect of a lake, peopled by an infinite multitude ofliving creatures."
"Therefore," observed Wolston, "it is not the great works of Nature,or those of which the organization is most perfect, that alonepresents to the mind of man the unfathomable mysteries of creation;atoms become to him problems, that utterly defy the utmost efforts ofhis intelligence."
"Which," suggested Becker, "does not prevent us believing ourselves awell of science, nor hinder us from piling Pelion on Ossa to scale theskies."
"What becomes, in the presence of these facts, of the metaphysics andcosmogonies that have succeeded each other for two thousand years?What of all the theories, from Ptolemy to Copernicus, from Copernicusto Galileo, Descartes and his zones, Leibnitz and his monads, Wolf andhis fire forces, Maupertuis and his intelligent elements, Broussais,who, in his anatomical lectures, has oftener than once shown to hispupils, on the point of his scalpel, the source of thought; what, Isay, becomes of all these?"
"There is less wisdom in such vain speculation than in these simplewords: '_I believe in God the Father, the Creator of all things_.'"
"Worlds," says Isaiah, "are, before Him, like the dew-drops on a bladeof grass."
"We are now, however, getting into the clouds," remarked Wolston; "letus return to the earth by the shortest route. What do you mean to dowith the chimpanzee?"
"Why, we must cage him in some way," replied Becker; "to let him looseagain would be to create fresh uneasiness for ourselves. To kill himwould be almost a kind of homicide."
"Can I come in now?" inquired Willis, thrusting his head into thegallery.
"Yes, with perfect safety."
"You see, when Master Ernest begins to spin, he gets into the chapterof miracles, and forgets that we have ears."
"I cannot help seeing them sometimes though, Willis; when they are alittle longer than usual, it is difficult to hide them altogether."
"Well," replied Willis, "I confess I am a bit of a fool, and as youare at a loss what to do with our friend here, I shall take him overwith me to Shark's Island: there will be a pair of us there then."
"If you will undertake to be his guide and instructor, he is yours,Willis."
"What shall I call him?"
"Jocko."
"It shall go hard with me if I do not make a gentleman of him in amonth's time."
"I should like," said Frank, "if you could convert him into a tiger."
"A tiger?"
"Yes, we want a footman in livery to fetch Mrs. Wolston's carriagenext time she calls for it."
"I feel highly flattered by the compliment," said Mrs. Wolston, "butfear you will not be able to turn him out entire."
"Why so, madam?"
"Where are the top boots to come from?"
