This monkey, (_fig. 211._) though small, is a beautiful animal. Its
name seems to indicate that it is a native of Siam, and other eastern
provinces of Asia; but though we cannot positively assert this, it
is, however, certain that it belongs to the Old Continent, and is not
found any where in the New, because it has pouches on each side of its
cheeks, and callosities on its posteriors, which characters neither
belong to the sagoins nor sapajous, which are the only animals of the
New World that can be compared to the monkeys.
What inclines me to think, independently of its name, that this monkey
is more common in the East-Indies than in Africa, is, the travellers
affirming that most of the apes in this part of Asia have their hair
of a brownish green colour. "The monkeys of Guzarat, they say, are of
a greenish brown, with long white beards and eyebrows. These animals,
which the Banians suffer to multiply in great numbers, from a religious
principle, are so familiar that they enter the houses in such numbers
that the fruiterers and confectioners have no little difficulty to
preserve their merchandize."
Edwards has given a figure and description of a monkey by the name of
the _middle-sized black ape_, which seems to approach nearer to the
talapoin than any of the rest. We have made a comparison between the
two, and, excepting the size and colour, they have such a resemblance
to each other, that there is at least a very great approximation
between them, if they are not varieties of the same species. In this
case, as we are not certain that our talapoin is a native of the
East-Indies, and as that spoken of by Mr. Edwards is described by him
as an animal belonging to Guinea, we shall refer our talapoin to the
same climate, or at least suppose that this species is common in the
southern parts both of Africa and Asia. It is also probable, that this
is the same as the species of black monkeys mentioned by Bosman under
the name of _baurdmannetjes_, the skin of which, he informs us, makes a
good fur.