THE DOG-SHAPED MONKEYS[25]--1. SEMNOPITHECUS--2. COLOBUS.
General Characteristics of the Monkeys of the Old
World--Distinguished from the Apes by Length of the Hinder Limbs
and presence of Tails--Divided into those with and those without
Cheek-pouches--Use of the Cheek-pouches--The two Genera of
Pouchless Monkeys--THE SACRED MONKEYS, or Semnopitheci--Derivation
of the Name--First Discovery--Ape Worship in India--General
Description--Limited to Asia--THE SIMPAI--Its Locality and
Appearance--THE BUDENG--Hunted for their Fur--Its Colour and
Appearance--THE LONG-NOSED MONKEY--Reason of the Name--Quaint
Appearance of the Young--Anatomical Peculiarities--Their First
Appearance in Europe--Description of the Nose--Peculiar Formation
of the Stomach--Bezoars--THE HOONUMAN MONKEY--The Sacred Monkey
of the Hindoos--Legends about it--THE DOUC MONKEY--Its Appearance
and Habitat--THE BLACK-LEGGED DOUC--Anatomical Peculiarities--THE
CROWNED MONKEY--THE RED MONKEY--THE SUMATRA MONKEY--THE
WHITE-BEARDED MONKEY--Found in Ceylon--Its Intelligence--THE
GREAT WANDEROO--Other Ceylonese Monkeys--THE GENUS COLOBUS, or
Thumbless Monkeys--Description of the Hand and Wrist--Different
Varieties--COLOBUS VERUS--COLOBUS GUEREZA--Their Habitat and
Peculiarities--Fossil Semnopitheci.
The Apes which have formed the subject of the previous chapters, and
which, from their greater or less resemblance to man, have been called
the _Anthropomorpha_, have long arms, short legs, and no tails. The
great length of the fore limb distinguishes them not only from man,
but also from all the other Quadrumana, and so does the relative
shortness of the hinder limbs. The length of limb is thus sufficient
to afford data for classifying the Quadrumana of the Old World in two
great groups, of which the Anthropomorpha form the first, and the rest
of the Monkeys the second. In these the fore limb is invariably the
_shortest_, and the hinder one the _longest_; so that there is exactly
the reverse condition of that observed in the great Apes. With regard
to the tail question, it may be stated that, whilst many species have
very long tails, others have them of moderate length, and a few have
none.
The Monkeys of this second group, or the Cynomorpha, all of which live
in the Old World, have a thin division (septum) between the nostrils,
whose openings look downwards, or downwards and outwards. They are
Catarhine Quadrumana (see page 3), and many have cheek-pouches, but
not all, whilst all have the peculiar pads, more or less brightly
coloured, which are placed where the animal sits, or on the swelling of
the haunch-bone. All these Old World Monkeys have the same number of
teeth as the Apes already described, and arranged in the same manner,
and most have a laryngeal or air pouch; but there is great diversity
in their size, shape, and in the method of progression of the body
and shape of the head, and also in the construction of the brain and
internal organs. Moreover, the arrangement of the muscles and of the
back-bone differs.
The presence or absence of the cheek-pouches, the peculiarity in the
shape of the teeth, the shape of the body and limbs, and the method
of moving along, are all matters of importance to the zoologist, for
by them he is enabled to arrange these Monkeys in genera and species,
so as to give the naturalist the proper name of the kind whose habits
he may be studying. Moreover, the comparative anatomist, in examining
the insides of these creatures, and explaining their peculiarities
of internal construction, is able to account for many habits and the
presence of many structures, as well as to assist the zoologist. For, a
classification, to be good for anything, must be more than skin deep,
and must depend upon the differences in those parts which are not
readily changed by habits or peculiar methods of life.
The Monkeys of the Old World, excluding the great Apes already
described, and including alone those with long hind limbs, may be
divided into those without cheek-pouches and those which have them;
and those in the first division form the subject of this chapter.
Cheek-pouches may be seen crammed with nuts in most of the Monkeys
at the Zoological Gardens, and the appearance given to the face is
as if the skin on each side of the lower part of it were distended.
When there are no nuts thus stowed away, the cheeks do not present a
swollen or unusual appearance. The Monkey does not force nuts outside
its jaws and between them and the cheeks so as to simply distend
them, but it presses its food into what look like some folds in the
cheek. These unfold, and form a bag or pouch on each side of the face,
and the animal can eat, scream, and scold with the pouches full, and
without their contents coming by chance into the mouth. The gift of a
cheek-pouch is of great importance to a Monkey; it is a stowaway for
his food, which may have to be carried some distance before it can be
eaten. And it must be remembered, that not only have the Monkeys very
indefinite notions of _meum et tuum_, but that they are surrounded by
dangers from many other animals; they are communists, and their motto
is _la propriété c’est le vol_; and, on the other hand, the great
beasts of the earth, whose stealing is less thought of, because it is
done with great violence, openly, and on a large scale, put down the
Monkeys whenever they have the chance. But Nature, ever a considerate
mother, whilst she is exceedingly economical, and does not allow any
structures to be unused or wasted without gradually abolishing them,
often gives animals which are defective in some things very important
compensation.
[Illustration: FACE OF THE BLACK-CRESTED MONKEY.]
The pouchless Monkeys are evidently at a disadvantage; but by this
system of compensation they have very peculiar stomachs, in which they
can stow away quite as much food before more is absolutely wanted as
their pouched friends can. The nature of this stomach will be noticed
further on; and it is only necessary to observe that it is not in
existence in the cheek-pouched division at all. The cheeks of the
Monkeys with the peculiar stomach, on the other hand, are not pouched,
but there is just the vestige of a fold or two, which, although of no
use, still remains as an evidence of their ancestry--for, doubtless,
these are descended from those with pouches. The great Anthropomorphous
Apes have no cheek-pouches, neither have the American Monkeys; and, for
reasons which will be noticed in treating of these last, they have not
the complicated stomach of the Old World pouchless group.
The pouchless division of Monkeys with complicated stomachs, and which,
of course, have long hind limbs, comprehends two genera--the genus
Semnopithecus, and the genus Colobus.
THE SACRED MONKEYS.
The Semnopitheci, or the Sacred Apes--from σεμνός (sacred), and
πίθηκος (an Ape)--were probably known to the Greeks who invaded India
under Alexander the Great; and Ctesias, a Greek writer, who was taken
prisoner by Artaxerxes of Persia, at the battle of Cunaxa, some 400
years B.C., studied them. He was kept for seventeen years at
the court of that monarch, and made notes on most subjects, and also
on the natural history of Persia and India. On his return to Athens he
gave the world the results of his observation in a book, and in it he
treats of two Apes, one of which was smaller than the other, and had a
very long tail. This was a Semnopithecus, for the genus is especially
Asiatic; but the ancients did not discriminate between the long-tailed
Apes of Africa and those of Asia, but called both Cercopithecus--from
κέρκος (a tail), and πίθηκος (Ape). At the present time the word
Cercopithecus is restricted to the kinds which live in Africa. These
differ in their internal construction from the Asiatic varieties.
During the rise of the religion of Brahma, the contemplation of the
Creator became singularly mixed up with the worship of the created, and
many animals became sacred. Hence, when one of those wandering restless
spirits, Gasparo Balbi by name, started in 1570 from the town of
Venice, where he was a jeweller, to reach the Indies, and came to the
end of his journey, he saw many a long-tailed Ape worshipped and petted
by his customers. He wandered amidst many a danger--but the people were
honest then--and reached Aleppo. Then he went by caravan to Bagdad,
and got to Old Babylon--by the way, “a place perilous for robbers and
lions.” Reaching Bagdad, he embarked for Balsora, and reached that
place after escaping whirlpools and hot and deadly winds. Thence he
went to the cities of St. Thomas, by the Seven Pagodas, in Southern
India. Leaving there, and much troubled by tigers, he crossed the
Ganges and got into Pegu on the Irawady. He admired the Pagodas, or as
they are there called, “the Varelles of the gods,” and says that about
them are found “tyed many Apes of that kind which resemble Mountain
Cats, which were called Monkeys; they keep them very carefully, holding
them to be creatures beloved of God, because they have their hands and
feet like human creatures, and therefore the woods are full of them,
for they never take any except for their Varelles and statues.” This
regard for the Long-tailed Monkey has lasted, and probably is only now
diminishing under the influence of the rationalistic philosophy of the
wicked Europeans, who will not see anything holy in an Ape. Certain
it is that the follies of Ape-worship were carried on to a wonderful
extent, and that these creatures have been preserved to the serious
detriment of crops, comfort, and temper.
The regard of the natives for them was, and probably is still, sincere,
and their boldness--the result of immunity from persecution--was
discovered very early in the English occupation of India; for Tavernier
tells a story of an English “President,” who asked him to shoot some
Monkeys, which were amusingly audacious by the river side. He complied,
and a female fell dead with her young clinging to her. This so enraged
the Monkeys that sixty of them descended at once, and had it not
been for the serving-men, and the carriage being shut up, they would
have strangled the “President.” They followed the carriage for many
miles. Then we are told about Indian princes spending fortunes on the
marriage-feasts of Apes; and of cultivators of the soil being scared
away and subjected to all sorts of rapine by these holy creatures. All
this goes to prove that generations of Hindoos have believed in the
sacred character of the Monkey, and have placed him in their mythology.
So Fred. Cuvier, when he wanted a name, termed them Sacred Apes, or
_Semnoptheci_. They have been called Slow Apes, but this is quite a
misnomer, for when awake, and not tired, they are as full of fun,
activity, and play, but not as full of malice, as the others.
Wallace, in his charming book of travels in the great Islands of
Sumatra and Borneo, thus noticed how full of life they are:--“In
Sumatra, Monkeys are very abundant, and at Lubo Raman they used to
frequent the trees which overhang the guard-house, and gave me a fine
opportunity of observing their gambols. Two species of Semnopithecus
were most plentiful--Monkeys of a slender form, with very long tails.
Not being much shot at, they are rather bold, and remain quite
unconcerned when natives alone are present; but when I came out to look
at them, they would stare for a minute or two, and then make off. They
take tremendous leaps from the branches of one tree to those of another
a little lower. It is very amusing when one strong leader takes a bold
jump, to see the others following with more or less trepidation; and
it often happens that one or two of the last seem quite unable to make
up their minds to leap till the rest are disappearing, when, as if in
desperation at being left behind, they would leap as far as they could,
and often come crashing down into the underwood.”
The Semnopitheci may be described as Monkeys with hind limbs long, and
larger than the fore limbs, with slender bodies, usually highest at
the tail, and round heads, and with not very prominent faces, and very
long tails. They have callous pads on the haunch-bones, and in some
there are slight folds inside the cheeks, but no pouches. The hands
have thumbs, and the last tooth of the lower jaw (the third molar) has
a prominent heel to it, or cusp, besides four others. They are of all
sizes, and the largest are bigger than a Pointer Dog; but they are all
slightly made, and their long bodies, thin as a rule, are larger in the
stomach than in the chest. Their tails, which hang down and are not
curled up, distinguish them pretty readily.
The Monkey which shows the peculiarities of the genus _Semnopithecus_
more than others is, perhaps,
THE BLACK-CRESTED MONKEY, OR THE SIMPAI.[26]
It was noticed and described by Sir Stamford Raffles as a native of
Sumatra, where it is frequently seen in the neighbourhood of Bencoolen.
It has a long and slender body, very long hind-legs, and the tail end
is higher than the shoulders in walking. The fore-legs are short, and
the tail is very long, and exceeds thirty inches in length, and the
head is small and wonderfully straight in the forehead and face.
The colours of this Simpai are very different to those of the great
Apes already mentioned. Here variety of colour replaces the sameness
of the tints of the large Anthropomorpha. First, there is a long crest
of black hair on the top of the head, which passes slightly round the
face close. On the cheeks there is a tuft of fawn-coloured hairs, which
graduate into white. The forehead is of a light fawn-colour, and the
face is naked, slightly wrinkled, and of a blue tint. The under parts
of the body are very white, and on the back and neck the colour is
bright yellow and red. The palms and soles are black, the thumbs are
small, and the callosities are large.
THE NEGRO MONKEY.[27]
This is, as the name implies, a black Monkey. It is intensely black,
except underneath, and at the root of the tail, where there is a grey
tint. The paws are long, delicate, and silky, and become slightly
grey on the head and back with old age. Like most black things, it
leads a troubled life, being chased and hunted, not, however, in this
instance so much for amusement as for the pretty black fur. They live
in great troops, in the Javanese forests, and sometimes fifty or more
individuals associate together. They make rude nests in trees, and are
extremely timid, making off with great haste if they are disturbed. A
long series of generations has been chased and killed by the natives
of Java, and therefore the present Negro Monkeys are exceedingly shy,
and bolt from the face of man at once. And yet, although thus timid
and anxious to get out of the way, they have the reputation of being
dangerous, and really unwittingly they may be so. On the approach
of men they utter loud screams, and scamper off amongst the trees,
helter-skelter. Now in doing this, they break dead branches off, and
sometimes a large fruit or nut comes tumbling down some score or two
of feet. These are supposed to be thrown by the Monkeys, but such is
not the case. Having this bad character, the “Negroes” are cudgelled
with sticks, and killed in numbers very cruelly. Their pretty fur
is much prized, and the chiefs of the country arrange the hunting
parties, treating the Monkeys really as beasts of the field. The skins
are prepared by a simple process which the natives have learned from
Europeans; and they conduct it with great skill. It affords a fur of
a jet-black colour, covered with long silky hairs, which is used by
the natives and Europeans there in ornamenting riding saddlery and in
military decorations.
When young, they are of a brown or reddish tint, and thin grey tints
appear preceding the intense black; they then eat buds and shoots
and tender leaves, but in adult age they are fruit consumers. When
in captivity they are sullen and morose, and they will remain sulky
for many months. This the natives know, and therefore they never try
to tame them, or to have them in their houses. In their shape they
resemble the last Monkey described, and their hind limbs are very long,
their haunches being high.
[Illustration: NEGRO MONKEY.]
They are rather more than two feet long in the body, and the neck
appears short; both shoulders and chest are short and largely made. The
tail is as long as the body and head, and is often slightly tufted at
the end. A mop of hair surrounds the face, and the hairs are long and
closely pressed, and quite conceal the forehead. The nose is peculiar,
for the bones of it are ridged, as it were, and the skin is drawn tight
over the open nostril (nares), so that there is no soft nose. A very
considerable space exists between the nostrils and the mouth, and the
lips are small and thin.
THE LONG-NOSED MONKEY.[28]
Of all the remarkable oddities of Nature amongst the many-shaped
Monkeys, the Long-nosed or Proboscis-carrier stands pre-eminent. In
fact, there is nothing in human or ape nature like the face of one
particular Long-tailed Semnopithecus from Borneo. Monkeys have flat
noses as a rule, some have a ridge and a little fleshy mass in which
the nostrils end; others, like the Baboon, have dog-like noses, and
the Americans have wide noses, the nostrils opening well at the sides.
In man there is the Roman nose, the pug, the straight, the flat, the
broken, the long with a large end, and the short with a turn up, but
the Nasalis Monkey stands alone amongst the Primates with a nose of
vast proportions, which projects far in advance of the mouth, and
whose nostrils open underneath. It grows with age, and commences as a
small “turn up,” which still is more fleshy and longer than the nose
of any Monkey. The newly-born Nose Monkey is a most extraordinary
object, reminding the critical eye of many youths of weak constitution
and defective brains. Its hair is wonderfully parted down the middle,
and brushed by Dame Nature down the sides of the head and a little
backwards; the whiskers take the latter direction, and the ears stand
out just behind them. It has drooping eyelids, a longish upper lip,
with just a little sign of coming hair, and then there is the funny
nose, the upper part like a boy’s, but the end seems to have been
pulled out and turned up, so that the nostrils are quite at the tip.
The face has a tinge of blue about it, and the animal, even when old
enough to be sitting on a tree, looks sad and melancholy.
They grow to the size of a large Pointer Dog, and are powerful animals,
assembling in troops, and playing and associating probably with the
Orangs. Stuffed specimens of the Proboscis Monkey are usually simple
caricatures, and by no means good ones, for they do not give one-half
of the curious appearance of the face. In nature, and in drawings
taken shortly after death, the first thing that strikes one is the
flat top to the head, and the red hair there, starting from the top
of the crown, and radiating in all directions, and coming as a very
sharp line straight over the eyebrows, and cutting the forehead very
short. Then the prodigious nose, stuck out some inches in front of the
mouth, is, with the rest of the face, naked, and of a reddish-brown
flesh-colour. The eyes are wide apart and open, and are of a hazel
colour. The whiskers clasp the face, as it were, and are brushed back,
and join the hair of the neck, whilst the little beard sticks out like
a goat’s. The mouth is wide, and the chin recedes. It is a long-bodied
creature, and there is a great bend outwards in the back when it squats
on its haunches. There is a good-sized chest, there are long arms,
still longer legs, and a great tail. The prevailing colour of the back
and shoulders is the red or dark-red brown of the head hair, whilst the
rest of the body is of a lighter tint, the tail and limbs especially.
The thumb of the hand is small, and barely reaches as far as the first
finger-joint, but the toe-thumb is large, widely set from the foot, and
the skin-fold comes far down it, as also does a web between the toes,
the third of which is the longest.
[Illustration: LONG-NOSED MONKEY.]
The skull of this Monkey greatly resembles that of the other
Semnopitheci. The face part is smaller in comparison with that of the
great Apes, but then it is not much larger than the brain case. There
is a faint ridge at the side, and the usual one from one ear to the
other exists. The front of the face on each side of the opening for the
nose is rather larger and more prominent than in some other kinds, but
there are no evidences of the existence of the great fleshy and gristly
mass which is stuck on in front in life. This swelling of the front
of the face in the skull slightly reminds us of a greater one which
characterises the Dog-faced Baboons, and, moreover, the similarity
is increased by the fact that the upper eye (canine) tooth presses
the first tooth behind the lower eye tooth backwards. These little
peculiarities are inherited gifts, for the Nasalis and the Baboon
probably came from a common ancestor. Perhaps the great fleshy nose of
the Semnopithecus Nasalis is a relic of the long face of the ancient
Baboon. Shorten the bones of the Baboon’s nose, and leave the soft
parts, and there would be left something like the queer features of the
Monkey now under consideration.
One must be struck with the long back-bone of this Monkey, its single
backward bend, and the long way the ribs seem from the hips; making
it like the Gibbons, and very unlike the other great Apes, which have
their last ribs close to their hips. The tail is very long, and starts
well up the back, that is to say, its origin at the end of the sacrum
bone is some distance from the haunches, on which the creature sits.
These last are rounded so as to afford comfortable rest, especially as
they are covered by the callosities or pads. The feet are long from the
metatarsal bones, and the great toe-thumb is accompanied by a long,
strong, backward-projecting, and curved-up heel-bone.
The Dyaks call this Monkey the Kaha, for this is the sound which they
make when in companies in the woods by the side of the swamps and
jungles. There they live a restless life at sunrise and sunset, being
quieter in the heat of the day, and crying out at each other. They have
fine voices, thanks to their strength, and perhaps to the air sac in
their neck, which may render oral sounds more resonant. They are active
creatures, and bound from tree to tree, clearing from fifteen to twenty
feet with ease.
[Illustration: YOUNG LONG-NOSED MONKEY.]
Being very like extremely ugly humanity, the Dyaks consider them
as degraded men, and they give an excellent reason for their human
ancestors having left their habits and dwellings. They did not like to
pay taxes, so they took to the woods!
It is said that when the ambassadors of Tippoo Saib came to Paris to
urge the French to take up his cause against the British in India,
they were immensely delighted with the Monkeys with the great noses
which were preserved and stuffed in the museum, acknowledging them as
compatriots. But as a matter of fact, specimens of this Monkey never
had been and never could have been seen by these men, for it does
not inhabit the peninsula of India. But it is a fact that when some
specimens came over to Paris, preserved in spirits, they excited a
wonderful commotion amongst the savans. Broderip was present, and saw
one drawn forth, “looking like one of those horrible female fiends
sometimes pictured in old woodcuts.
“Not uglier follow the night hag.”
A celebrated French naturalist, who was present at the opening of the
casket which contained this zoological jewel, was in raptures, and
as the bust emerged he uttered an exclamation significatory of her
paternity. We looked in vain for the young imps, which had probably
escaped when their poor barrelled-up mother fell. It must be startling
to look round in the wilderness of Borneo and behold one of these
horrible visages peering, Zamiel-like, from behind the trunk of some
dark tree! The impression left on the mind, however, is rather of
the comical than of the terrible in its nature after seeing these
creatures; but one is obliged to admit that those who see a use in
everything may be puzzled to account for this superfluity of nose, for
this greatest of all noses does not appear to be like that of the Wolf
in Little Red Riding Hood, “all the better to smell with.”
But some philosophy may be got out of this nose, and it tends to
humiliate the pretensions of those anatomists who can restore an animal
if they can only get hold of a bone or two.
This nose is an anatomical excrescence: cut it off, and no bones are
cut through; dissect the skull, and then no one could tell that there
ever had been such a feature attached to it. The dry bones show no sign
of what was during life, and the skull resembles those of the other
Semnopitheci. So that animals with the same shaped bones may have very
different coverings, and no one could restore the nose of this creature
out of his inward consciousness any more than he could imagine, from
the back-bones of the animals, that camels and dromedaries have humps
thereon.
The animal has a huge air sac, which appears to be single, and to enter
the windpipe above the larynx cartilage, and between it and the bone of
the tongue. It opens into the membrane which connects these structures
(the thyroid membrane) on the left side, and the opening can be closed
by the contraction of the muscles which reach from the tongue-bone (os
hyoides) to the larynx cartilage (thyroid cartilage--the thyro-hyoid
muscles).
But the most interesting part of the internal construction of Nasalis
is the great stomach, which does not consist of a simple bag, with
an opening for the food to enter from the gullet and œsophagus or
food pipe, and with another at the opposite end to carry the digested
food to the intestines, but is complex, there being three bags united
together. The first two of these bags are for the storage and reception
of food, and the other, which ends in the canal leading to the
intestines, is for its digestion. This compound stomach is peculiar to
the Semnopitheci and the Colobi amongst the Monkeys. It exists in the
most perfect form in the animals which chew the cud or ruminate, such
as oxen. It is noticed also, more or less, in the Cetacea, or Whale
tribe, in the Sloths, in the Cony, or Hyrax, in the fruit-eating Bats
of the genus Pteropus, and finally in some Kangaroo-like animals. It is
possible that the Semnopitheci may bring back more food into the mouth
and chew it again, or the first two expansions of the stomach may be
really simple receptacles and storehouses grown in the place of the
cheek-pouches; or the condition may be a reversion, or going back, to
the condition of some remote ancestor.
[Illustration: STOMACH OF THE LONG-NOSED MONKEY.]
The large intestine is also very bulged out here and there, and this
and the large stomach occupy much space in the cavity of the belly,
compressing the bowels within smaller bounds than in the larger Monkeys.
Bezoars are found in the sacs of the stomach of the different kinds
of Semnopitheci, and were and may be still much prized. They are
potent charms and remedies against poisons, and are supposed to
possess extraordinary virtues. The name comes from the Persian,
writes the learned author of the article “Bezoars,” in the “Penny
Cyclopædia”--_Pêd-zahr_, expelling poison, the expeller of poison.
“Pêd” is relieving and curing, and “Zahr” is poison. Bezoars are
sometimes found in various parts, but chiefly in the stomachs of land
animals. They are either natural or artificial, and as they are rare,
they are worth many times their weight in gold. Those which were most
esteemed in Europe came from the East, and were the earliest used. The
most highly prized came from the stomachs of the wild goat of Persia,
and they were called by way of eminence, _Lapis Bezoar Orientalis_,
and all such things which were supposed to be antidotes were called
_Bezoardic_. They are still esteemed in the East, but have long fallen
into disuse in Europe, the chemist and the naturalist having abolished
their value by exposing their real nature. They are the round hard
balls which are found in the stomachs of many animals, and which
consist of hair licked off and swallowed, and food of every clinging
nature cemented together by mucus. They get too large to pass out of
the stomach, either by vomiting or by going through the small canal
into the intestine, and therefore become round by being rolled about,
and often very great. Very large ones are discovered in some horses
which are found at work near flour and bran mills. The Americans got
theirs from the Llama, and they consisted principally of phosphate
of lime. Perhaps the earliest of all physics was bezoardic, and it
consisted of the heart and liver of vipers, pounded up for the benefit
of the invalid. Fortunately, bezoars disappeared from the list of
useful drugs years ago, with the crabs’-claws, oyster-shells, powdered
centipedes, and other medical delicacies with which our forefathers
were drenched in good faith and _secundum artem_.
[Illustration: SUMATRA MONKEY. (_From Temminck._)]
THE HOONUMAN MONKEY.[29]
This is the most sacred of the sacred Monkeys of the Hindoos, and when
full-grown, measures four feet and a half in length, and the tail is
considerably longer than the body. An ashy-grey tint distinguishes the
upper part of the body, and it is darkest on the tail, which is of
equal thickness throughout. The rest of the body is of a dingy yellow
colour, or rusty brown, and the arms, hands, and feet are dusky black.
The long face is blackish; and above the eyebrows is a line of long
stiff projecting black hairs. A greyish-white beard passes round the
face, and extends upwards, and is thicker in front of the ears, which
are long and prominent and black. Finally, this face has a few hairs by
way of a beard beneath the chin, which projects.
A long-legged, active creature is the Entellus. It associates in
great troops, and they keep up a constant noise and quarrel. Those
that abound--thanks to the belief in their semi-divinity by the
Hindoos--near towns and plantations are certainly more sharp, clever,
and impudent than their less fortunate fellows. They watch and steal
with impunity and ability, and are amusing when young, but savage and
disagreeable when old. The young differ much in shape from the old
adults, and their limbs seem very disproportioned at first. They have
a staid look about them, and a tranquil eye, and the forehead is broad
and high, the muzzle only slightly prominent, and the brain-case large.
But with age this alters; the tints of the body get darker, the body
larger, the muzzle elongates, and the forehead appears to contract, and
to be no longer an object of human resemblance. The disposition changes
also, for the tame and amusing young learn a number of tricks and are
full of fun; but this is succeeded by a look and behaviour of distrust
and fierceness.
[Illustration: DOUC.]
The Entellus Monkey is not found from Cape Comorin to the Himalayan
Mountains, as is usually asserted; and Captain Hutton has shown that it
is “entirely and absolutely restricted, within narrow limits, to the
hot tropical plains of the north-western Gangetic provinces, where,
from the degree of protection which its imputed ‘odour of sanctity’
is so well calculated to cast around it, as well as from the numbers
in which it frequently occurs, it becomes a perfect nuisance in those
parts of the country where the superstitious veneration for it most
strongly prevails. In many places where the natives, from religious
motives, are in the habit of feeding and protecting them, the roofs of
the village huts are at certain hours of the day literally crowded with
them, and the depredations committed in grain shops, gardens, and among
neighbouring crops, are most miscreant-like.” The Entellus has been
purposely introduced elsewhere, but is naturally confined to the right
banks of the Ganges and Hooghly. They will not cross water of their own
accord, and there appears to be a notion in the minds of the Hindoos
that if there are males on one side and females on the other bank of
the river, and plenty of boats between, the sexes will never mix, but
that the males have great fights together. This is, however, one of the
many fictions of those races who rarely study Nature. Some of these
Monkeys were introduced to Kishunghur, in Lower Bengal, across the
rivers, by devotees, and the offspring of one pair increased to such an
extent as to become a perfect nuisance, so that in 1867 a large number
of the native community presented a petition, praying that measures
might be taken by the municipality to destroy some of the too numerous
Monkeys that infested the station, causing fearful havoc among the
fruit and grain. An order was issued, and 500 were killed. “There must
be many thousands,” wrote a correspondent of the _Delhi Gazette_. This
act was soon succeeded by another petition from a different section
of the native population for the cancelment of the order to kill what
they called their long deceased ancestors. The Entellus is not found
in Africa, nor amongst the Himalayas; neither does it migrate from
the upper to the lower districts of Bengal at special seasons. The
Himalayan Semnopitheci are the Langoor and another--the _Semnopithecus
pileatus_ and _Semnopithecus barbei_.
It was stated formerly that the Entellus could be seen on Simla all
the year through; but when the snow falls during the winter it seeks
a warmer climate in the depths of the Khuds, returning again to the
heights as it melts away. They may be seen, however, on a fine sunshiny
day, even with the snow on the ground, leaping from tree to tree up and
down a hill in Simla, which is at about an elevation of 8,115 feet.
All this is a mistake; and it is the Langoor, not the Hoonuman, or
Entellus, which does all this. It is the Langoor Monkey which Dr. Royle
saw at an elevation of 9,000 feet during the summer months, and which
Captain Hutton observed when on Hatu mountain, close to Simla, at an
elevation of 10,650 feet, and at Simla during winter with snow four or
five inches deep, and frost at night.
Whether the Entellus is found in the Deccan, and to the south,
appears to be matter of doubt but probably the long-tailed Monkeys,
seen in multitudes near houses or only in the forests, belong to a
Semnopithecus closely allied in shape and ornamentation to it. One, the
_Semnopithecus Johnii_, rarely leaves the forest lands, and is seen in
Malabar.
Evidently the natives do not discriminate between the species and the
varieties of it, as we may. They consider all of them possibly to be
endowed with the mind of an ancestor, and that it may be their lot to
have their soul placed within the body of some Monkey or other.
They attribute to the Hoonuman the stealing of the delicious fruit the
mango, and its introduction into Hindostan; but the legend asserts that
the hero Ape who did this, stole the fruit from the garden of a giant,
who lived in Ceylon, and that afterwards he resolved to set fire to
Ceylon, and destroy his enemies by a lighted tar-barrel tied to his
tail; but he burnt his hands and feet black, and they remain so to the
present day. Unfortunately for the truth of this legend, the Entellus
never was in Ceylon.
The Entellus is occasionally to be seen in the Zoological Gardens of
London, but it is a very delicate creature. It likes quiet play and
some solemn stillness, and therefore it is not kept with the vivacious
African Monkeys, but with the Long-tailed Americans.
One of the most striking of the Semnopitheci is wonderfully like some
of the Indians of the far west of America in their war-paint, so far as
the head is concerned. This is
THE CROWNED MONKEY.[30]
Its colour is brown, becoming very dark and almost black on the back,
loins, and outsides of the thighs, and around the fore-arms and lower
leg. The muzzle is rather prominent, and there is a white patch over
the nose on the forehead. The crest of long hair sticks up like that of
a Cockatoo, and is rather brushed backwards, whilst a whisker, which is
continuous with it, comes forward and hides the cheeks.
All the proportions of the limbs are those of the genus, and the tail,
which hangs down, is long and slender. It comes from Borneo.
THE RED SEMNOPITHECUS.[31]
This is an active little Monkey, and a great tree climber; it greatly
resembles the last in shape, but it has a shorter muzzle, and the whole
body is a bright reddish-brown, the face being blue and naked, the eyes
hazel. A crest of hair sticks up on the top of the head, and the bulk
of it points backwards, whilst the front comes over the forehead like
thatch, and the whiskers are brushed outwards. It is called Kalassi in
Borneo.
This diversity of colouring, which must astonish every one who has
seen Temminck’s beautiful plates of the Semnopitheci, must be received
cautiously as a proof of the different colours meaning different kinds.
For in Semnopithecus chrysomeles the male is dark brown, and only
lighter in tint underneath, whilst the female is light brown, with a
splash or two of black on the front legs. They both have blue faces.
In this instance the female and the male might have been called by
different names. The same thing occurs in the Sumatran Monkey, in which
the female is light brown and the male is a most extraordinary-looking
yellow. His hair seems brushed back most violently, the blue face is
very short and straight; he has a reddish chin, a white throat, inside
of arms, and legs, and belly, and under part of tail, but all the rest
is black, with a shade of lighter tint behind the ears and on the back.
All these are very curious-looking when young, for then the head
appears too big for the body, and the stomach is always large;
moreover, the little Proboscis Monkey looks like a boy with his hair
parted down the front, and who has a blue face and a tail.
THE DOUC, OR VARIEGATED MONKEY.[32]
This Monkey is perhaps the most gaily clad of all this group, and in
this departs in a most marked manner from the dull sameness of the fur
of the Apes already described in the former chapters. Not only is the
long hair very different in colour in several parts of the body, but
the hairs themselves are variegated, having bands of various tints upon
them, differing thus from the whole-coloured hairs of the great Apes.
The animal has the usual shape of the Semnopitheci; but the whiskers
brushed back, as they appear to be, make the naked and orange-coloured
face look broad. These whiskers are long, and are of glossy whiteness,
and above they join the hair of the forehead, which is black in front,
gradually becoming grizzled grey. This is the tint of the head, and of
the back of the neck and back. The thighs, fingers, and toes are black,
the legs and ankles are bright red, fore-arms, throat, and underneath
the legs, the buttocks, and the tail are pure white, and the white
throat is surrounded by a more or less complete circle of bright red.
They live in the woods of Cochin China, and have been met with not far
from the coast. They assemble in troops, but appear to be good-tempered
and easily frightened, and this appears to be all that is known of
their nature. But they yielded to the researches of the anatomist the
same internal arrangement of the cavities of the stomach which has been
noticed in describing the Long-nosed Monkey.
THE BLACK-LEGGED DOUC.[33]
The forests on the banks of the Me-kong, near Saigon in Cochin China,
are tenanted by a fine Douc which, instead of having the red legs of
the true Douc (_Semnopithecus nemæus_), has them of a black colour from
the root of the tail to the tips of the toes. Moreover, in this animal
the fore legs are greyish-black, dotted with white, whilst those of the
other Douc are whitish. Of course these distinctions are not sufficient
to separate these Doucs specifically, and they must be considered races
or local varieties, the black-footed one living more to the south than
the other. If this be correct, and it must be on the principle that
a negro and a white man are only races of the genus Homo, and that a
black and a white rabbit are of the same kind, colour is a point of
little importance.
The Black-legged Douc has its face almost naked, and surmounted by
a band of hairs on the forehead. These stand out, and are directed
forwards. In the other Douc these hairs, of a less black tint, are
brushed, as it were, backwards. Now, an attempt has been made by
Geoffroy St. Hilaire to arrange the kinds of Semnopitheci by the
direction and peculiarities of their head-dresses, and if this plan
were carried out the true Douc would be in one section--that of those
with the hair brushed back--and the black-legged one, which is only
a variety, and not a separate species, would have to be placed in
another. Hence, this plan is worthless.
This Douc has a very human face and a small head, a large chest, a thin
abdomen, very long hind-legs and tail, and short fore-legs.
[Illustration: CROWNED MONKEY.]
The skull of the Douc has large and open orbits, faint side crests,
and faint crests passing from the ear over the occiput. The face is
small in relation to the brain-case, and the shape of the whole differs
greatly from that of the Troglodytes in this respect. The lower jaw is
angular behind, and the portion (the ascending branch or ramus) which
leads up to the joint is very straight. The teeth in it are of the same
number as those of the Gibbons; but the last grinder is long, and has a
very distinct heel-like back, point, or cusp. The other four points, or
cusps, are placed two in front and two behind them, those in front are
united by a cross ridge, then comes a hollow across the tooth, and then
the back pairs, which are united by a ridge, and then the heel follows.
The other crushing molar teeth have four cusps, in pairs, each pair
having a common cross ridge, and the pairs are separated by a furrow.
The teeth are close together, and the first false molar is smaller than
the second. The upper jaw projects a little, and the front jaw-bone
(pre-maxillary) remains distinct. Its crushing teeth have four points,
or cusps, but the outline of the teeth is not straight at the sides,
but doubly curved, so that the entrance of the curves is between the
cusps, and it corresponds to the furrow. All this gives a very animal
look to the teeth.
It must be remembered that these teeth are used more for crushing
soft vegetable matters than for cracking nuts, and things which can
be stowed away in a cheek-pouch and devoured at leisure. Hence the
difference between the teeth of these and of the Macaques.
THE CEYLON LOW-COUNTRY WANDEROO--THE WHITE-BEARDED MONKEY.[34]
“When observed in their native wilds,” writes Sir James Emerson
Tennent, “a party of twenty or thirty of these creatures are generally
busily engaged in the search for berries and buds. They are seldom
to be seen on the ground, and then only when they have descended to
recover seeds or fruit that have fallen at the foot of their favourite
trees. In their alarm, when disturbed, their leaps are prodigious, but
generally speaking their progress is made not so much by leaping as by
swinging from branch to branch, using their powerful arms alternately,
and when baffled by distance, flinging themselves obliquely so as to
catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the momentum acquired by
their descent being sufficient to cause a rebound, that sends then
again upwards, till they can grasp a higher branch, and thus continue
their headlong flight.”
[Illustration: PRIAMUS MONKEY. (_After Tennent._)]
This Monkey is very active and intelligent, and is not very
mischievous, and, indeed, is much less so than the other Monkeys of
Ceylon. In captivity it is remarkable for the gravity of its behaviour,
and for an air of melancholy in its expression and movements, which is
completely in character with its snowy beard and venerable aspect.
Its disposition is gentle and confiding; it is in the highest degree
sensible of kindness, and eager for endearing attentions, uttering a
low plaintive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is particularly
cleanly in its habits when domesticated, and spends much of its time in
cleaning its fur, and carefully divesting it of the least particle of
dust.
The Nestor is about sixteen inches in length (the body and head), and
the tail measures twenty inches. The prevailing colour is a deep grey,
with a slight tinge of brown, becoming paler on the back of the neck
and on the tail, where the previous tinge is more marked. The hands and
lower part of the limbs are nearly black. Its lips, chin, and whiskers
are nearly pure white, the tips of the latter, which are brushed
backwards, being grey. There is a stiff ridge of black hairs over the
eyebrows, and they are about an inch and a half in length. The moderate
length of the hairs, the light colour and the white of the lower sides
of the face, are distinctive. It inhabits the southern and western
provinces of Ceylon, and is found at a higher elevation than even 1,300
feet.
THE MAHA, THE GREAT WANDEROO.[35]
This is a larger Monkey than the last, and lives in the hills higher up
the country of Ceylon than the Nestor. It is wilder and more powerful
than its lowland neighbour, and is rarely seen by Europeans. It clings
to the deep woods, and seldom approaches the few roads which have been
made through these solitudes. There is a good deal of the Bear in its
general appearance, and Major Forbes, travelling in Ceylon, noticed
this first of all. He says:--“A species of very large Monkey, that
passed some distance before me, when resting on all-fours looked so
like a Ceylon Bear that I took him for one.” Hence the name Ursinus.
Another very rare Monkey in Ceylon is, for some hidden cause, named
_Semnopithecus Thersites_. Thersites was the most ugly and the most
impudent talker of the Greeks before Troy, and probably this Monkey is
ugly and impudent in the extreme. It is deficient in the head-tuft,
which adds to the beauty of the genus; but its temper is good, and
it is grateful. One which was caught was fond of being noticed and
petted, stretching out his limbs in succession to be scratched, drawing
himself up so that his ribs might be reached by the finger, and closing
his eyes during the operation, evincing his satisfaction by grimaces
absolutely ludicrous. He was fond of fresh vegetables, plantains, and
fruit, and ate freely of boiled rice, beans, and grain.
The last Ceylonese Monkey to be noticed is the _Semnopithecus Priamus_.
It inhabits the northern and eastern provinces, and the wooded hills
which occur in those portions of the island. In appearance it differs
both in size and in colour from the common Wanderoo (_S. Nestor_),
being larger and greyer, and its habits are much less reserved. Where
the population is comparatively numerous, these Monkeys become so
familiarised with the presence of man as to exhibit the utmost daring
and indifference. A flock of them will take possession of a Palmyra
palm, and so effectually can they crowd and conceal themselves among
the leaves that, on the slightest danger, the whole party becomes
invisible on the instant. The presence of a Dog, however, excites such
an irrepressible curiosity, that, in order to watch his movements,
they never fail to betray themselves. They may be seen frequently
congregated on the roof of a native hut; and some years ago the child
of a European clergyman having been left on the ground by the nurse,
was so teased and bitten by them as to cause its death. The Ceylon
people hold the singular belief that the remains of a Monkey are never
found in the forest--a belief which they have embodied in a proverb,
that “He who has seen a white crow, the nest of the piddybird, a
straight cocoa-nut tree, or a dead Monkey, is certain to live for
ever.” “This piece of folk-lore has evidently reached Ceylon from
India,” writes Sir J. Emerson Tennent, from whose work the extract is
taken, “where it is believed that persons dwelling on the spot where a
Hoonuman Monkey (_Semnopithecus entellus_) has been killed, will die,
and that even its bones are unlucky, and that no house erected where
they are hid will prosper. Hence, when a house is to be built, one of
the employments of wise men is to ascertain by their science that none
such are concealed; and Buchanan observes that it is perhaps owing to
the fear of this ill-luck that no native will acknowledge having seen a
dead Hoonuman.”
Sir J. Emerson Tennent describes the method in which these Priamus
Monkeys attack a garden, which is quite after the fashion of modern
human military tactics. A green sward separated the garden of one of
his friends from the jungle, and across this a single Monkey would
cautiously steal about twenty paces, and halt to assure himself, by
eye and ear, that all was safe. Presently a second would venture
out from the trees, pass in front of the first, and squat himself
after making another reconnaissance. A third and a fourth would
then stealthily approach, always gaining an advance beyond the last
vedette, and finally the whole body, having ascertained the absence
of danger, advanced hastily but noiselessly to the enclosure; and
having with infinite rapidity secured a sufficient supply of fruit, the
troop dispersed simultaneously, with a rush and an exulting scamper,
conscious that caution was no longer necessary. Possibly this Monkey
becomes occasionally an albino, for white Monkeys having the general
shape of the Priamus are captured every now and then not far from
Colombo; and Spence Hardy mentions, in his work on “Eastern Monachism,”
that on the occasion of his visit to the Great Temple of Dambool
he encountered a troop of white Monkeys on the rock on which it is
situated.
In the Semnopitheci and in the species of the next genus (Colobos) the
face is long, the forehead rounded, and there is a decided angle to the
jaw, so that the facial angle is considerable.[36]
GENUS COLOBOS.[37]
All the Monkeys of the genus Semnopithecus which have been found by
travellers and naturalists live in Asia and its islands, and thus
their geographical limit is precise. Now, there are some Monkeys which
resemble them in most points, and which are only found in the forests
of tropical Africa; that is to say, in Abyssinia on the east, and from
Gambia to Angola on the west. They are also found on the Island of
Fernando Po. These have the thumbs of the hands extremely small, and
they are but mere useless projections. They are Semnopitheci without
thumbs, and the Greek word κολοβός (“docked or stunted”) has been used
to designate them.
The kinds of Monkeys included in the genus Colobos are not very
numerous, and they are interesting more on account of their beautiful
skins, which form ornaments and articles of commerce in Africa, and for
those suggestions which must occur to the mind of every one who thinks
a little about natural history, regarding the cause of the absence of
such an important structure as the thumb in a group of animals, whose
other characters are similar to those of a genus possessing it. Very
little is known about their habits in a state of nature, and few have
ever been brought alive to Europe.
The thumb is not seen in the least in one kind of Colobos, the true
Colobos (_Colobos verus_); in others it is like a little knob, but in
none is it of any use. In the corresponding member of other Monkeys
there are three bones, one placed before the other. The first, the
metacarpal, is the nearest the wrist, and is jointed to the wrist-bone
called trapezium, and in front it is in contact with the second bone,
or the first phalanx of the thumb. This is ended by the second phalanx,
which bears the nail. These are terms used by anatomists, and the
word metacarpal means “the next in order of rank to the wrist.” These
metacarpal bones intervene between the knuckles and the wrist, and
are long and parallel with each other, there being five in the hand.
They are not usually very movable on the wrist, but that of the thumb
is, and they have a joint at the further end which unites them with
the so-called internode or phalanx-bone, No. 1. The word internode
means between joints, and the term phalanx is one of those unmeaning
applications of Greek terms which abound in anatomy. The phalanx was
an order of battle, and means rows placed in parallel order: the
internodes of the fingers, when in place, are one before the other and
side by side, like the soldiers in the Greek order of battle. Each
phalanx represents a bone: there are two in the thumb, and three in the
other fingers. In the Colobos there is a joint on the wrist-bone for
a thumb, but no thumb exists, but there is just a little vestige of a
bone, and it is probably the first phalanx, or internode, and not the
metacarpal.
The thumb is therefore “rudimentary” in the genus Colobos, and why? The
animals are tree-climbers and active jumpers, and can run very well on
all-fours; in fact, their method of life and of motion is that of the
Monkeys which have well-formed thumbs. The notion of a useless organ
is at first repulsive to our ideas of the benevolent scheme of Nature.
Mr. Darwin writes, “In reflecting on them every one must be struck with
astonishment; for the same reasoning power which tells us plainly that
most parts and organs are exquisitely adapted for certain purposes
tells us with equal plainness that these rudimentary or atrophied
organs are imperfect or useless.” Let us take a well-known instance of
such a structure: the Calf when born has cutting teeth in its upper
jaw hidden in the gum; they are not in sockets, and even if they were,
they would be of no use in biting. The Ox has no cutting or incisor
teeth in its upper jaw, as every one knows, and the tongue touches a
hard and moist gum there. The incisor teeth of the Calf are never cut,
but they are gradually absorbed in the gum with age. Now what is their
meaning? They are of no use in sucking, or in anything which occurs in
the early life of the animal: they are clearly useless and rudimentary
or atrophied structures. Take another example: the little Kiwi bird of
New Zealand has no wings with which to fly, yet the bones are there
in a dwarfed and rudimentary condition; many insects have no wings,
or have them so reduced in size that they are of no use in flight,
and sometimes the males have them in perfection, and the females have
none. In explaining this subject two courses are open, first, to beg
the question, and to say that the design of the Creator was thus; or
to account for it on the principle that the Creator acts by law, and
that creatures become modified and altered by inherent power, and by
having to obey the force of surrounding circumstances generation after
generation.
[Illustration: COLOBOS VERUS. (_After Van Beneden._)]
In the instance of the male and female insect just noticed, the male
is active, and has to search for his partner, and the female is a
stay-at-home, and expects to be courted, and when mated to do nothing
more than lay eggs. Her wings would be of doubtful value. We may
believe, then, that _disuse_, generation after generation, gradually
weakened the wing, and finally Nature, ever economical in not-used
organs, did not perpetuate it. Disuse may be therefore considered as
the principal cause of the atrophy, rudimentary condition, and of the
final deficiency of structures. But disuse will not produce this in
one generation, but in many, so it is necessary to look farther back
into the ancestry of the creatures which have rudimentary organs. The
four-legged ruminating or cud-chewing animals have bones and feet of
peculiar arrangement, and there is no difficulty in at once knowing
a ruminant by its bones. Now, in former ages, and before there was a
trace of man on the globe, there were ruminants, as known by their
bones found in strata or deposits, and they had incisor teeth in their
upper jaws when full grown, and not only when in the calf condition.
The inference to be drawn is, that the modern Oxen are the descendants
of those ancient forms with incisor teeth, and that disuse, probably
produced by the introduction of grass-feeding on a grand scale, instead
of leaf-and bud-nibbling, gradually diminished the strength and
permanence of the front upper teeth, and finally only left the simple
traces of them which we have mentioned. Disuse by ancestral forms, by
the forefathers, and the carrying down the weakened and atrophied state
of the structure or organs, are the most important considerations in
any attempt at the explanation of the seeming paradox. In endeavouring
to apply this style of reasoning to the Colobos group--the Semnopitheci
without thumbs--it must be asked, is there any evidence of the great
antiquity of these Monkeys, and are there any evidences of anything
wrong about the thumbs of their Asiatic allies?
[Illustration: GUEREZA.]
It is remarkable, and bears strongly upon this point, that some of
the fossil remains of animals found in India, on the flanks of the
Himalayan Mountains, have a closer resemblance to a large Semnopithecus
Monkey than to any other, and to one belonging to a kind much like
the Entellus. The bony remains were found in collections of shingle,
clay, and sand of great depth, and which included also the remains
of the bones of Elephants, Giraffes, Hippopotamidæ, Crocodiles, and
fresh-water Tortoises, and other land and fresh-water creatures. The
deposits had accumulated in lakes and swamps in the plain near the
distant flanks of a low range of hills, the ancient foundations of
the present great snowy range, and then upheaval took place, which
gave the very home of snow (Himalaya) its present vast altitude. The
plains, lakes, and swamps were lifted up and tilted, and their relics
are now found resting at a considerable angle on the main chain, and
covered and folded over by the pressure exercised during the marvellous
change in the physical geography of the district. Semnopitheci lived in
India, then, before the Himalayas were a great chain of mountains, and
they lived with animals which were African as well as Asiatic in their
character. The vast age of the groups of Monkeys must be admitted, for
the Himalayas are as old as the Alps, and as both have been worn down
into their present condition of peak, pass, and valley since they were
uplifted, their age is incalculable by years. The former connection
of Africa and Asia by means of intermediate land, which is now the
floor of the Indian Ocean, to the west of Hindostan, may be reasonably
asserted to have been severed at the same time when the mountains far
away to the north-east received their breadth and height. So that
before these great terrestrial changes occurred, Semnopitheci could
have either an Indian or an African home. Disuse of the fore-thumbs
in branch-crawling or swinging may then have commenced before that
geological age in which these things happened, and it may have
progressed very decidedly in Africa, and not so much in Asia. Hence the
Semnopitheci here have rather small thumbs, and the African groups,
separated by the physico-geographical change, and disusing generation
after generation, have gradually lost the structure.
The Colobi resemble the Semnopitheci in the construction of their
compound-looking stomach.
THE GUEREZA.[38]
There is something very un-monkey-like in the shape of this Abyssinian
animal, for it has long white hair, resembling the edge of a cloak,
along its sides, and a long tail with a tuft to it. The natives chase
it, and are fond of having some of their long hairy skins to cover
their shields with. Assembling in little troops, the Guereza keeps
well up in the tallest trees, in the neighbourhood of running water.
They feed on fruit, grain, and insects, and are inoffensive and wild.
The fur is certainly very prettily arranged, and the black and white
truly oppose each other well. The colour of the fur of the head and
of the greater part of the body is black, but the forehead is white,
so are the sides of the face, the throat, and the sides of the neck.
There is a mantle-like mop of long hairs starting from the region near
the ribs, and the lower part of the back, and covering the flanks in
a train behind. It is of a white colour, and exists in both sexes;
nevertheless, it is longest in the females and adults. The tail is
white, hairy, and tufted.
* * * * *
Another of the Colobi has a very dignified look given to it by a large
mass of hair which covers its neck and shoulders like a little cloak.
It has slim legs and a long tail. For some reason or other the natives
in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone call it the King of the Monkeys.
The face and limbs and body are black, and a great mass of hair
starting from the forehead and brushed back from the sides of the face
and chin, the neck and shoulders all round, falls down on all sides.
This is of a dusky yellow colour. The tail is white. It is called the
Cloaked or Many-haired Colobos (_Colobos polycomos_).
As if to contrast kinds of the genus Colobos, which have great
general resemblances, Nature has provided some with red-coloured fur,
instead of black and white; for instance, the Bay Monkey (_Colobos
ferrugineus_); and finally, one very interesting species which, like
all those mentioned, except the Guereza, comes from West Africa; it has
a short fur of an olive colour, with a grey tint beneath and on the
limbs. It has no long hairs on the body, and its tail is long and thin.
This _Colobos verus_ has not a vestige of a thumb. There are eleven
species of this genus.
Besides the fossil Semnopithecus found in the Himalayas others have
been discovered in Greece, Würtemberg, and at Montpellier, and in
strata of Mid-Tertiary and of Pliocene Age.