Genre:

Extract, Short Fiction, Drollery

Publications extracted:

Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

Subjects:

Animal Behaviour, Human Species, Medical Practitioners

    The narrator relates an anecdote about his pet monkey who, dressed in Highland dress, was mistaken by a Highlander for a tradesman. Introducing the anecdote, he observes: 'I dinna think that monkeys are beasts ava. I hae a half notion that they are just wee hairy men that canna, or rather that winna speak, in case they be made to work like ither folk, instead of leading a life of idleness' (218). On the Highlander handing him a banknote, the monkey looked at it 'as if to see that it wasna a forgery' shaking his head 'like a doctor, when he's no very sure what's wrang wi' a person, but wants to mak' it appear that he kens a' about it' (219).