The Missing Link and Other Tales of Ape-Men

by Georges T. Dodds

  56 “One is no less surprised,” observes Mr. Ch. Bonnet, “to see the orang-outang settle down to sleep in a bed of his own making, much as we would, place his head at the top of the bed, tie a handkerchief around it, and adjust the covers over himself, etc.” The Contemplation of Nature. H. Grose, speaking of a pair of orangutans, one male, one female, given to M. Horne, governor of Bombay, whom I mentioned already above, states that on the vessel on which they were embarked, they would prepare their bed with the utmost care. Voyages aux Indes-Occidentales, p. 329 et al. One finds similar details in the description of a female orangutan given by Mr. Fréd. Cuvier in 1808. “Our animal,” he states, “was used to wrapping herself up in covers, and showed an almost constant need to do so. On the ship she would take to bed everything which seemed appropriate to her for doing so. Whenever a sailor had lost a few pieces of clothing, it was almost always possible to find them in the orang-outang’s bed.” Description of an orang-outang. Having arrived in Paris, she would go every day to retrieve her cover where she had left it, place it across her shoulders, and climb up into the arms of her keeper to be taken to her bed.” Ibid.

  57 “I have seen,” states Mr. de Buffon, “an orang-outang pour his own drink into a glass, and clink it with others’ when asked to.” Natural History.

  58 The female of the orangutan of Borneo, of which Vosmaer has given us a detailed description, “enjoyed,” he said, “the company of others, without distinction of sex, preferring however those who took care of her and did her no harm. Often when these people left, she would throw herself to the ground as if in despair, uttering cries and lamentations.” Feuilles de Vosmaer, selected by M. de Buffon. An orangutan transported from Borneo to Paris in 1808 showed great affection to its master. If he was not at the table in his usual spot, he would cry out in pain, refuse to eat, and would roll on the ground and strike his head. “Such a need for affection,” states Mr. Fréd. Cuvier, “generally led our orang-outang to seek out people he knew and avoid solitude, which he seemed to very much dislike.” Mr. Fréd. Cuvier adds that this young animal sometimes used all the resources provided him by his instincts to avail himself of the pleasures of company. Closed up in a room separated from the conference hall by a door held secure with a bolt, and the lock of which was too high for him to reach, he went and got a chair, pushed the bolt, opened it, and thus managed to get into the hall. Journal de Paris, September 1, 1808.

  59 Monkeys, especially those of the larger species, are monogamous, that is to say that they generally are content with a single female, or at most with two. “Their relationship,” states Mr. Virey, “appears to be a kind of marriage, requiring fidelity, and they are terribly jealous.” Histoire des moeurs et de l’instinct des animaux. The male and female have a strong attachment to one another, which they express through caresses and mutual accommodation. I have already mentioned above the pair of orangutans, one male, one female, sent to M. Horne, governor of Bombay. “The female,” states H. Grose, “died on the ship, and the male showing many signs of sadness, took to heart his spouse’s death, refusing to eat and only surviving her by two days.” Voyage aux Indes Occidentales.

  60 Such caresses are not limited to individuals of their species. “Such animals,” states Mr. Lecomte, “appear to be of a very tender disposition; they kiss those they like with surprising transports of joy.” Memoir on the Present State of China, vol. II. Mr. Levaillant speaks in great detail of such caresses as he received from his monkey named Kees. “Often,” he states, “I took him hunting with me; what frolics and happiness upon our departure, how tenderly he would come and kiss his friend!” Travels in Africa, vol. I.

  61 “The orang-outangs,” states Ch. Bonnet, “live communally in the jungle, and are strong and courageous enough to chase away elephants with clubs. They even dare to defend themselves from armed men.” The Contemplation of Nature. ~The other families of monkeys such as the howler monkeys, the baboons, the red and blue monkeys of Gambia, the coaitas, etc. which also form more or less large societal groups made up of individuals of the same species, and headed by a leader who is generally the strongest member of the troop. At the slightest call of distress, or for pillaging, the various individuals of a given family or societal group offer each other mutual support, either in attack or defense. They establish amongst themselves a certain pecking order, with subordinates and individuals involved in enforcing order during marches and other operations, as well as in punishing the negligent with a beating and sometimes even with death. Virey, Histoire des moeurs et de l’instinct des animaux. “We were often visited,” states Mr. Levaillant, “in the middle of the day by large troops of bawains, monkeys of the same species as my friend Kees. These animals, surprised in seeing so many people, were even more so when they recognized one of theirs living peacefully amongst us, yet who answered them in their language.” Voyage en Afrique, vol. II. As reported by D. Fél. d’Azara, the carayas, monkeys native to Paraguay, live in families made up of four to ten individuals, led by a single male. This chief always places himself in the highest spot so as to ensure the safety of the family he leads, which family will only move once its leader is himself in motion. Essays on the Natural History of the Quadrupeds of the Province of Paraguay. I would point out that these monkeys are not the only ones to provide each other with mutual assistance. The large monkeys known as Cochinchina monkeys show the same courage and drive in saving, at the risk of their lives, animals of their species who have been wounded by hunters. Here are a few details which are given in this regard by a modern traveler, Capt. Rey. “We began at 5 a.m.,” he states, “to climb Taysons gorge, and before reaching the station where we intended to breakfast, we had killed over 100 individuals of the large species of monkey one finds only in this region, and are known only as Cochinchina monkeys…I dearly wished to capture alive a few youngsters, to bring them back to France. It was only with great difficulty that we were able to manage it, and it was necessary to kill a large number, for the more we wounded, the more came in response to the poor creatures’ cries…What was most remarkable was that the uninjured ones always sought to carry off into the jungle the dead and injured. Three youngsters we captured were taken from the body of their father or mother, from which one had a great deal of trouble detaching them.” I need not weigh in further here on the cruelty of hunters who, to satisfy their guilty greed, or often to stroke their poor self-esteem, don’t think twice about immolating creatures so similar to man in their exterior conformation, their habits and the mutual goodwill they have for one another. All those who have studied monkey behavior know the sequence and types of tactics these animals follow when it comes to pillaging a garden, an orchard or a field of sugar cane. Before beginning their expedition, they assign one or two amongst them to climb up to a high point so as to establish that there are no men about to bother them. If these scouts do not see anyone, their calls inform the remainder of the troop, who then begin their marauding. Some pick the fruit, the sugar cane, etc., taste them and dispose of what does not suit them; others, arrayed in a chain pass the items along from hand to hand in order to more quickly have them stored in a safe place, while others, serving as sentries and entrusted to call out with a whoop, whoop, whoop, or whatever other warning call was agreed upon, at the approach of the enemy. Upon hearing this warning, the raiders, and even the mothers with their little ones, leap into the trees, or escape into the mountains. Sentries who, by their negligence allow their fellows to be caught by surprise are severely punished. Kolbe, Description of the Cape of Good Hope, even insists that they are put to death if any member of the troop dies during the raid. Such details have been attested to by a number of travelers and naturalists. Stedman gives an eyewitness account of a case of sentries being posted to cover a group of monkeys’ marauding. “These creatures,” he states, “arrange sentries around the site of their pillaging in order to give the alarm, and I have seen with what precision and intelligence those which have been assigned this role have acquitted themselv
es. Voyage à Surinam. The same traveler mentions a species of monkey whose individuals live alone and do not gather in family groups. “I must speak of another monkey which I saw at the home of colonel P***, at which in Surinam is called wanacoe… This is the only monkey of its kind which is not social. This solitary creature is so despised by monkeys of other species, that they continuously assault them and steal their food.” Thus the monkeys too have their pariahs! Voyage à Surinam.

  62 “The people of the country, when they travail in the woods, make fires where they sleep in the night; and in the morning, when they are gone, the Pongoes will come and sit about the fire, till it goes out: for they have no understanding to lay the wood together.” Purchas, Pilgrims. When domesticated, monkeys can be taught to light a fire, feed it and watch it so as to avoid the accidents it might cause. The unfortunate chimpanzee whose sad end I have already reported (above) had, according to Mr. de Grandpré, “learned to warm an oven; she kept close watch that no live coals escaped that could set the vessel on fire, and judged accurately when the oven was sufficiently warm, never failing to inform the baker, who, confident of the creature’s sagacity, depended upon it, and hastened to bring his dough as soon as the monkey came to get him, without the former ever leading him to error. Voyage à la côte occidentale d’Afrique, vol. I.

  63 “The orang-outang goes to the fountain to get water, fills a jug, places it on its head and brings it back to the house.” Bonnet, The Contemplation of Nature. These facts are also reported by a number of other travelers.

  64 “I have seen,” states Mr. de Buffon, “an orang-outang go and take a cup and saucer, bring it to the table, put sugar in it, pour some tea, let it cool to drink it, and all this without any encouragement or words from his master, and often of his own account…I have seen him sit at the table, spread out his napkin, wipe his lips with it, use a fork and spoon to bring food to his mouth.” The female of the orangutan described by Vosmaer also knew how to use a fork and spoon. “When she was given strawberries,” states the Dutch naturalist, “it was a pleasure to see how she would stab them and bring them one by one to her mouth with a fork.” The female orangutan which I have already mentioned on several occasions, could eat perfectly well a hard-boiled egg in the shell, as long as one prepared some sippets for her. Fréd. Cuvier, Descript., etc.

  65 “Trained to serve in the home, the orang-outang, at a single sign or at his master’s voice…will rinse the glasses, serve drinks, turn meat on the grill, crush in a mortar what one gives him to grind, etc.” Ch. Bonnet, The Contemplation of Nature. One can see that the barris (a type of chimpanzee), orangutans, and monkeys, learn to do different tasks, and to proffer their masters all the services one might expect from a domestic servant; they sweep rooms, clean boots, untie the bows in shoes, etc. The female orangutan of which Vosmaer speaks knew how to behave at the dinner table. “After having eaten,” states this naturalist, “she took a tooth-pick and put it to the same use as we do.” Feuilles de Vosmaer.

  66 While I may be diverging from my subject matter, I cannot help but report the following anecdote, which I guarantee to be genuine. A man fallen into a most wretched state, and whose bitter disposition one too often criticizes in others, and which one should not be proud of, had a dog, his only friend. This poor creature, driven by his instinct, had developed the habit of stopping before the door of certain high class hotels; there he would most skillfully search the waste drain for the roots drawn into it by the water which escaped when the cooks drew out the plug from the sink. He would separate the chewed upon pieces from those which appeared to be more appealing, keeping the poor pieces for himself, and reserving the best for his master.

  67 Mr. Allamand speaks of a female orangutan observed by Mr. Harvood. “She would willingly cover herself with pieces of fabric, but she would not suffer to be dressed in clothes.” See Buffon, Nat. Hist. An individual which is discussed below liked to be covered; and, “in order to accomplish this,” states Mr. Frédéric Cuvier, “she would take any piece of material or clothing which was near her.” Description d’un orang-outang. Mr. G***, at whose home this interesting creature spent most of her time in Paris, from her coming off the ship to her death, wrote to me that the cold led this small jocko to allow herself to be clothed in a small woolen cardigan, a redingote and even a pair of pants; but often, when she was alone in the hall, she would get as close to the fire as she could and would take off all her clothes.

  68 “I saw,” states Mr. Audebert, “a mangabey who would take a book, place it on a table and turn the pages with some skill, grimacing as if the book’s contents excited his indignation.” Histoire [Naturelle] des Singes, art. Mangabey.

  69 One should not be surprised at the skill with which monkeys, particularly the howler monkeys, probe and dress the wounds they receive. Here is what the eyewitness Oexmelin tells us: “The moment one of them is wounded, the others gather around him, put their fingers in the wound and act as though they are probing it. If they then see that a lot of blood is flowing, they keep the wound closed while others bring a few leaves which they chew and carefully place inside the open wound. I can claim to have seen this several times, and much admired it.” Histoire des flibustiers.

  70 The young brown capuchin monkey raised by Mr. Moreau-Saint-Méry, being sick as a result of his gluttony, gave himself up willingly to the care being given him. “It was a touching sight,” states Mr. Moreau-Saint-Méry, “that of the little animal, its cries rising above my own voice with the horrible agony it endured, opening its mouth and swallowing the oil I gave it.”

  71 A male orangutan, closed up on a ship, fell sick. “He would let himself be treated like a man; he even twice had a bloodletting from his right arm. Every time he felt poorly he would show his arm so as to be bled, for he remembered that it had done him some good.” Extracts from the Voyage of Mr. de la Brosse as reported by Buffon, Nat. Hist. The young jocko which arrived in Paris at the beginning of March 1808 was then 10 to 12 months old. “The fatigues of a long ocean voyage,” states Mr. Fréd. Cuvier, “along with the cold the animal was subjected to in crossing the Pyrenees in the snowy season, put her life seriously at risk. Having arrived in Paris, she had several frozen fingers, suffered from a hectic fever caused by an obstruction in the spleen, as well as a cough which gave scant hope she would survive more than a couple of days.” Description d’un orang-outang. Mr. G***, to whom this little jocko had been sent, and who had given her the name Maiden of the Forest, watched over her with the most scrupulous exactitude. A doctor would come to see her. As soon as she saw the doctor, she would look at him with soft eyes and extend her little arm so he could take her pulse. With a lot of care she was able to partly recover, but she finally succumbed after five months… On the day she died, M. G*** had been forced to go to the country with his family, and had left her with a servant he trusted. She of the forest, sensing her time had come, wandered on several occasions through all the rooms, looking for her friends with a sad, worried expression; finally, having given up finding them, she came to moan and die on her covers, which were spread out in the garden. Mr. Fréd. Cuvier states that “upon her autopsy, most of her intestines were found to be disorganized and full of obstructions.” Description d’un orang-outang.

  72 Acosta, cited by Stedman, attests to have seen, in the Government House in Cartagena, a monkey which, when his master ordered him to, would go and get wine at the wine seller’s, holding in one hand the bucket and in the other the money, which he never gave to the wine seller until he had received the wine. Sometimes, on his way back, he might be assailed by children throwing stones at him; he would then place his bucket on the ground, catch the stones which were thrown at him in his hand, and throw them back at his assailants so skillfully that they lost interest in repeating the attack. He would then pick up the bucket and bring it faithfully back to the house, and though he very much enjoyed wine, he would not drink a drop until his master gave him permission. Voyage à Surinam.

  73 Mo
nkeys are in general closely attuned to melody. If one is to believe the illustrious Gassendi, the great barris monkeys of Guinea can learn to skillfully play the flute, the guitar, and other instruments. “Qui maximi sunt, et Barris dicuntur…ludere fistula, cithara, aliisque id genus.” Vita Peiresc. Count Panoglorowski, exiled to Siberia by tzar Peter, and having only a dog and a monkey as companions, took up the task of training these two animals. The dog learned, it is said, to play chess, and the monkey to play the flute. Journal de Paris, September 1, 1808.

  74 Those who ask how the fascinating Jocko could have brought her friend such a quantity of diamonds must remember that, far from being buried in the mines of Raolconda, Coulour and Soumelpour, many diamonds are found on the soil surface. The scientist Mr. Werner notes that one finds at the base of the Orixa mountains of India diamonds which, he says, were originally formed within these mountains, and which were separated from them afterwards. See Nouvelle théorie sur la formation des filons [New Theory of the Formation of Veins], etc. It is also known that the diamonds from the Soumelpour mine, which draws its name from a town located on the Gouel River, which flows into the Ganges, are not found in their original location, but often mixed through the river’s sands, which stripped them from their matrix. ~It is thus quite natural to think that Jocko had found, either in a sandbank beside a river, or rather in the fissures of a rock, the diamonds which she presented as a gift to her friend.

  75 “If the orang-outang is not a man,” states Mr. Ch. Bonnet, “he is the most perfect prototype thereof which walks the Earth.” The Contemplation of Nature.

  76 None of the species of monkeys known to us have the ability to produce articulate speech or distinct words. ~“It is,” states Mr. G. Guvier [sic], “physically impossible for the orang-outang to articulate any sound because of a sac which communicates with its larynx and renders his voice entirely silent.” Tableau élémentaire de l’histoire naturelle des animaux. We know that Africans attribute the monkeys’ silence to their laziness, and fervently believe that these creatures do not speak lest they would be put to work. Froger, Relations du Voyage de Rennes.