The monkey is one of humanity's favorite species of the animal kingdom. Its striking similarity to ourselves, and the concomitant opportunity for metaphor-making and general insight into our own condition and habits have motivated a centuries-long fascination with this family of beasts. And it rewards us by offering a wide diversity of subspecies, each with its own unique abilities and ideosyncracies. Here we have room for only a few.
"Dog-Shaped" Monkeys
After the gibbons come a vast number of monkeys of every conceivable size, shape, and variety, which naturalists have arranged in consecutive order with fair success. Until we reach the Baboons, and go on to the South American Monkeys and the Lemurs, it is not easy to give any idea of what these monkeys do or look like merely by referring to their scientific groups. The usual order of natural histories will here be followed, and the descriptions will, so far as possible, present the habits and appearance of the monkeys specially noticed.
This great family of true monkeys contains the Sacred Monkeys, or Langurs, of India, the Guerezas and Guenons of Africa, the Mangabeys, Macques, and Baboons. Most of them have naked, hard patches of skin on the hindquarters, and the partition between the nostrils is narrow. Some have tails, some none, and they exhibit the most astonishing differences of size and shape. Perhaps the most grotesque and astonishing of them all is the PROBOSCIS MONKEY. It is allied to the langurs, and is a native of the island of Borneo, to which it is confined; its home is the west bank of the Sarahwak River. It is an arboreal creature, living in small companies. Mr. Hose , who saw them in their native haunts says that the proboscis monkeys kept in the trees overhanging the river, and were most difficult to shoot. " I saw altogether about 150 of these monkeys, and without a single exception all were in trees over the water, either lake, river, or in submerged forest. As long they are in sight, they are very conspicuous objects, choosing the most commanding positions on open tree-tops. Once I saw thirteen in one tree, sitting lazily on the branches, as is their habits, sunning themselves, and enjoying the scenery." They are very striking animals in color, as well as in form. The face is cinnamon-brown, the sides marked with reddish brown and white, the belly white, the back red-brown and dark brown. Next to the orang-utan, these are the most striking monkeys in the Malay Archipelago.
The greater number of the species intermediate between the gibbons and the New World species are called "DOG-SHAPED" MONKEYS. We wonder why? Only the baboon and few others are in the least like dogs. The various SACRED MONKEYS of India are often seen in this country, and quite representative of the "miscellaneous" monkeys in general. Most of them have cheek-pouches, a useful monkey-pocket. They poke food into their pouches, which unfold to be filled, or lie flat when not wanted; and with a pocketful of nuts or rice on either side of their faces, they can scream, eat, bite, or scold quite comfortably, which they could not do with their mouths full. The pouchless monkeys have only their big stomachs to rely on.
The ENTELLUS MONKEY is the most sacred of all in India. It is gray above and nutty brown below, long-legged and active, a theif and an impudent robber. In one of the Indian cities they became such a nuisance that the faithful determined to catch and send away some hundreds. This was done, and the holy monkeys were deported in covered carts, and the released many miles off. but the monkeys were too clever. Having thoroughly enjoyed their ride, they all refused to part with the carts, and, hopping and grimacing, came leaping all way back beside them to the city, grateful for their outing. One city obtained leave to kill the monkeys; but the next city then sued them for "killing their deceased ancestors". in these monkey-infested cities, if one man wishes to spite another, he throws a few handfuls of rice on to the roof of his house about the rainy season. The monkeys come, find the rice, and quietly lift off many of the tiles and throw them away, seeking more rice in the interstices.
This is not the monkey commonly seen in the hills and at Sinla. The large long-tailed monkey there is the HIMALAYAN LANGUR, one of the common animals of the hills. "The languar," says Mr. Lockwood Kipling in his "Beast and Man in India, "in his way, a king of the jungle, nor is he often met with captivity. In some parts of India troops of languars come bounding with a mighty air of interest and curiosity to look at passing trains, their long tails lifted like notes of interrogation; but frequently, when fairly perched on a wall or tree alongside, they seem forget all about it, and avert their heads with an affectation of languid indifference".
In India no distinction is made between monkeys. It is abominable act of sacrilege to kill one of any kind. In the streets holy bulls, calves, parrakets, sparrows, and monkeys all rob the shops. One monkey-ridden municipality sent off its inconvenient but holy guests by rail, advising the station-master to let them loose at the place to which they were consigned. The station, Saharanpur, was a kind of Indian Chicago, and the monkeys got into the engine-sheds and workshops among the driving-wheels and bands. One got in the double roof of an inspection-car, and thence stole mutton, corkscrews, camp-glasses, and suters. Among many other interesting and correct monkey stories of Mr. Kipling's is the following: "The chief confectioner of Simla had prepared a most splendid bride-cake, which was safely put by in a locked room, that , like most back rooms in Simla, looked out on the mountainside. It is little use locking the door when the window is left open. When they came to fetch the bride-cake, the last piece of it was being handed out of the window by a chain of monkeys, who whitened the hillside with it was being handed out of the window by a chain of monkeys, who whitened the hillside with fragments."
From India to Ceylon is no great, yet in the latter island different monkeys found. The two best known are the WHITE-BREARDED WANDEROO MONKEY and the GREAT WANDEROO. Both are grave, well-behaved monkeys. The former has white whiskers and a white beard, and looks so wise he is called in Latin Nestor, after the ancient counsellor of the Greeks. Nice, clean little monkeys are these, and petty pets. The great wanderoo is rarer. It lives in the hills. "A flock of them," says Mr. Dallas, " will take possession of aplam-grove, and so well can they conceal themselves in the leaves that the whole party become invisible. The presence of a dog excites their irresistable curiosity, and in order to watch his movements they never fail to betray themselves. They maybe be seen congregated on the roof of a native hut. Some years ago the child of a European clergyman, having been left on the ground by a nurse, was bitten and teased to death by them. These monkeys have only one wife." Near relatives of the langurs are the two species of SNUB-NOSED MONKEYS, one which inhabits Eastern Tibet and Northwestern China, and the other valley of the Mekong.
