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.
The principle of _Imitation_ is strong in man, and especially, as I have
myself observed, with savages. In certain morbid states of the brain
this tendency is exaggerated to an extraordinary degree; some hemiplegic
patients and others, at the commencement of inflammatory softening of
the brain, unconsciously imitate every word which is uttered, whether in
their own or a foreign language, and every gesture or action which is
performed near them. Desor has remarked that no animal voluntarily
imitates an action performed by man, until, in the ascending scale, we
come to monkeys, which are well known to be ridiculous mockers.
Pages:
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479