With me he filled the office of a footman. At dinner he held the plates, and handed round the wine; he even ate at table when I invited him. The trifling marks of attention which I occasionally paid him made the other apes jealous, almost to frenzy.
With regard to his companion, who was likewise a young chimpanzee, she differed from most female apes, who are fond of ribbons, lace, and embroidered handkerchiefs, and appeared perfectly contented with her own natural grace and prettiness. She was never so happy as when some one gave her a beautiful flower, which she would either place behind her ear, or else regard with looks of melancholy for entire hours.
I had named my two baboons, the one Karabouffi the First, the other Karabouffi the Second; and I had given to the male chimpanzee the name of Mococo, and to the female that of Saïmira.
Mococo loved Saïmira very much; and it is quite certain that Saïmira on her part loved Mococo in return.
Karabouffi the First had also a hidden and terrible love for Saïmira. Nothing could exceed the black jealousy of this ferocious baboon. Whenever the two young chimpanzees, who enjoyed the liberty of perambulating the galleries of the museum, passed in front of his cage, his terrible claws became rigid as iron hooks, his eyes flashed forth angry and vindictive glances, as he curled up his blue lips, and gnashed his teeth. On these occasions terror reigned throughout the menagerie, and even the lions and tigers seemed lost in reflection.
There was not a single one of these animals that did not at times recall to me, point by point, the characters, desires, and passions of men. I became convinced with Buffon, who has written so many admirable pages on natural history, that if, instead of beating and ill-treating them and making them constantly suffer, we were only to study them, and take a real and active interest in such an occupation, we should penetrate an immense and unexplored world of ideas and sensations, where as yet we can be hardly said to have placed our feet.
Vice-Admiral Campbell was so delighted with the grimaces, the tricks, the eccentricities, and I must also add the ferocity, of my boarders, that he immediately purchased an ape and a monkey. Whereupon every officer, out of deference to his superior, selected in like manner an ape and a monkey.
I confess I could not bring myself to part with Mococo and Saïmira, for it was necessary to sell both or to keep both; but Vice-Admiral Campbell’s lady wished so much to possess them, that I had no alternative except to resign them to her. I knew, moreover, that she would take as much care of them as I myself had been in the habit of; nevertheless, I asked her to promise me never to leave them in the power of their prime persecutor, Karabouffi the First. She gave me her word, and I abandoned my two young chimpanzees with confidence to her keeping. The poor things appeared even more afflicted than myself at our separation, for they embraced me like two children, and moistened my hands with their tears. Overcome by these marks of affection, I was on the point of taking them back again; but I recollected that I was a trader, and that a trader must sell the wares in which he deals: interest therefore had its way.
As all the gentlemen belonging to the station bought, as I think I have already said, my animals in pairs, it happened that, owing to my having an odd ape, one of the two baboons, Karabouffi the Second, was left on my hands. For want of a female to pair with him, he was condemned to remain in the menagerie, a circumstance which irritated him to that degree as to cause him to utter shrieks of rage on seeing his companions about to be taken away while he alone was to be left behind.
His companions in their turn, pitying the lot of their unfortunate comrade who remained a captive behind the iron bars, uttered the most plaintive cries, and sought to prevent themselves from being conveyed on board the vessels which were to carry them to the distant station. It became necessary, therefore, to have recourse to the whip.