This animal, of all apes which have no tail, is that which can best
bear with the temperature of our climate. We kept one for many years.
In the summer it remained in the open air with pleasure; and in the
winter might be kept in a room without any fire. It was filthy, and of
a sullen disposition: it made use of grimace equally to shew its anger,
or express its hunger: its motions were violent, its manners aukward,
and its physiognomy more ugly than ridiculous. Whenever offended it
grinned and shewed its teeth. It put whatever was given to it into the
pouches of the cheeks, and commonly ate every thing that was offered,
except raw flesh, cheese, or any thing that had undergone a kind of
fermentation. When inclined to sleep it was fond of roosting on a
wooden or iron bar. It was always kept chained, for, notwithstanding
its long domesticity, it was neither civilized nor attached to its
keepers. Apparently it had been badly educated, for I have seen others
of the same species who were more sagacious, more obedient, more gay,
and so tractable as to be taught to dance, keeping time, and suffer
themselves quietly to be clothed.
_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._
[Illustration: FIG. 197. _Magot._]
[Illustration: FIG. 198. _Large Baboon._]
This ape (_fig. 197._) is two feet and a half, or three feet high,
in its erect posture; but the female is not so large as the male. It
prefers to walk on all four rather than on two feet. When it sleeps
it is almost always sitting; supporting itself on two very prominent
callosities on its posteriors; and the anus being placed higher, his
body is more inclined when sitting than that of man. It differs from
the _pithecos_; first, in the form of its snout, which is thick and
long, like that of a dog; whereas, the pithecos has a flat visage.
Secondly, in having long canine teeth. Thirdly, its nails are neither
so flat nor so round; and, fourthly, because it is larger, and of a
more sullen and untractable disposition.
There are also varieties to be met with in this species. We have seen
some of different sizes, with various coloured hair, and more or less
bushy. Even the five animals of which Prosper Alpinus has given us
the figures and descriptions, under the name of _cynocephali_, seem
to be all magots, differing only in size, and some other characters
too slight to form distinct species. The magot seems to be dispersed
over every warm climate in the Old Continent, and is found in Tartary,
Arabia, Ethiopia, Malabar, Barbary, Mauritania, and as far as the Cape
of Good Hope.
It is, probably, this species of ape which Robert Lade speaks of
in the following terms: "We travelled over a large mountain in the
neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, where we diverted ourselves
with hunting large apes, which are there in great plenty. I am not able
to describe the various arts practised by these animals, while we were
in pursuit of them; nor their swiftness, nor the impudence with which
they returned. Sometimes they suffered us to approach so nigh, that I
thought myself certain of securing them, but when I made the attempt,
the one I meant to seize would make a sudden leap, spring above ten
paces from me, climb up a tree with the greatest agility, and then
looking down upon us with perfect indifference, seem to derive pleasure
from our astonishment. There were some so exceedingly large, that if
our interpreter had not assured us that they were not of a ferocious
nature, our number would not have appeared sufficient to have protected
us from their attacks. As it would have been useless to kill them, we
made no use of our guns; but the captain, taking aim at a very large
one, which was seated on a tree, after having tired us with a long
pursuit, he had no sooner presented his piece but the animal, probably
from the remembrance of the execution of some of his companions by the
like manner, was so greatly terrified, that it fell almost motionless
at our feet, and we had not the least trouble in securing it; however
when it revived we had occasion for all our strength and address to
keep it, defending itself by biting those who came near, and we were at
last under the necessity of covering its head with our handkerchiefs."
_Distinctive Characters of this Species._
The magot has no tail, though he has a small portion of skin, which
has some appearance of one. He has pouches on the sides of his jaws,
and thick callosities on his posteriors; canine teeth much longer in
proportion than those of man; and the bottom part of the face turned up
like that of a bull-dog: his visage is hairy or rather covered with a
down: he is of a greenish brown on his body, and a pale yellow on the
belly: he walks erect on his hind feet, but oftener on all four. He is
about three feel and a half high, and there seems to be some of them
still larger. The females have a periodical emanation.