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CREATION BY EVOLUTION
of the mother’s body, and when they are old enough to run about they quickly rush to the mother whenever they are alarmed. The mother chimpanzee appears to teach her offspring to walk by taking them by the hand and guiding their steps. The babies are unable to walk alone until they are several months old.
Young apes are sometimes disciplined by their parents, and they are generally obedient to parental calls. When ill, they become objects of increased solicitude. Captain Crow tells of a small monkey that became sick during a voyage. “It had always been a favorite with the other monkeys, who seemed to regard it as the last born and pet of the family; and they granted it many indulgences which they seldom conceded to one another. . . . From the moment it was taken ill their attention and care of it redoubled; and it was truly affecting and interesting to see with what anxiety and tenderness they tended and nursed the little creature. A struggle often ensued among them for priority in those offices of affection; and some would steal one thing and some another, which they would carry to it untasted, however tempting the bit might be to their own palates. Then they would take it up gently in their forepaws, hug it to their breasts, and cry over it as a fond mother would over her suffering child.”
The grief of monkeys and apes over the loss of their young has often been commented upon. After a young ape has died it is often difficult to remove the body, because the mother refuses to give it up even after it has begun to decay. The chimpanzee previously referred to, which had given birth to a baby in captivity, bore a second one about three years afterward, but it soon died. The mother would not allow it to be removed, so Madam Abreu contrived to slip a cord around the baby’s neck and when the
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