Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 April 1875 — The Darwinian Man. [ARTICLE]

The Darwinian Man.

Baboons are remarkable for an inteTTVgence superior to that of many of their congeners. Their chiefs—for there exists with them a veritable hierarchy— have a wonderful manner of transmitting their orders to their lieutenants and the latter to their subordinates. They use a kind of language composed of numerous and varied intonations. To us they are cries, yelps, howls and snarlings; but what sincere observer will not aver that sometimes a foreign language uncomprehended by him has not appeared, an uncouth compound of incomprehensible and ridiculous sounds? In imitation of the people of the South of France, they accompany their discourse by quick, animated gestures in connection with the subject which occupies them. Baboons are very capable of having a rudimentary language, if we may judge of them by the following adventure: An Oriental had a baboon, well trained and very intelligent, which he had taught to watcli his dinner while it was upon the fire. Although man may claim to be .the only cook, our monkey soon took a great interest in this occupation, in which he bei came very expert. But one fine day, when | the Oriental had put the fowl in the pot to ; boil, Master Baboon, stimulated by curij osity, raised the cover of the vessel. The i odor probably pleased the fellow and made his mouth water; he tasted the article; it appeared good to him. By dint of tasting ■ the chicken, the latter was soon admira- : bly dissected. Before this result our I gourmand must have calculated in I advance the inevitable chastisement i which awaited him. What was passing in I his monkey brain ? To what reasoning, to what association of ideas did he apply himself? We cannot know; only that he did extricate, himself, or thought to have done so, in an admirable manner, and this is how he endeavored to do it, proving, before saying anything, that, in order to invent the expedient which we relate, the faculties of observation, subjective and objective, of reasoning and observation, were brought into play: Nature had endowed a part of the body of bur baboon with a red color, so like that of uncooked beef that on rolling himself in the dust and curling up he had the appearance, at a distance, of a stone upon which a piece of meat had been put. Besides, there, as in all the Orient, hover numerous birds of prey, easily Attracted by the odors of the cuisine, and mors voracious than perspicacious. So, as soon as they saw what appeared to be a fragment of abandoned flesh, they swooped down quickly. The first which approached paid dearly for his gluttonous temerity, for, seized immediately by our quadruman, he was, notwithstanding his cries, his blows from beak and wings, thrust alive, feathers, beak and claws, into the boiling pot; after which the baboon again resumed his post as guardian with the quiet ease which belongs to a clear conscience. I do not relate what the master thought when he wished to eat his dinner; neither if he found chicken and broth of a delicate and agreeable flavor. The reader’s imagination can supply the remainder of the narrative, — From the French, for Chicago Inter-Ocean.