WANDEROOS.
CHAPTER XL.
APES AND MONKEYS.
The Forest Life of the Simiæ—Excellent Climbers, Bad Pedestrians—Similitude and Difference between the Human Race and the Ape—The Chimpanzee—Chim in Paris—The Gorilla—The Uran—The Gibbons—The Proboscis Monkey—The Huniman—The Wanderoo—The Cercopithecus—A Plundering Party—Parental Affection of a Cercopithecus—The Maimon—‘Happy Jerry’—The Pig-faced Baboon—The Derryas—Wide Difference between the Monkeys of both Hemispheres—Distinctive Characters of the American Monkeys—The Stentor Monkey—The Spider Monkeys—The Saïmiri—Friendships between various kinds of Monkeys—Nocturnal Monkeys—Squirrel Monkeys—Their Lively Intelligence—The Loris and Makis.
In the midst of tropical vegetation, the Simiæ lead a free forest-life, for which they might well be envied. The green canopy of the woods protects them at every season of the year from the burning rays of a vertical sun, flowers of delicious fragrance embalm the air they breathe, and an endless supply of fruits and nuts never allows them to know want, for should the stores near at hand be exhausted, an easy migration to some other district soon restores them to abundance. With an agility far surpassing that with which the sailor ascends the rigging, and climbs even to the giddy top of the highest mast, they leap from bush-rope to bush-rope, and from bough to bough, mocking the tiger-cat and the boa, which are unable to follow them in their rapid evolutions. Formed to live on trees, and not upon the ground, they are as excellent climbers as they are bad pedestrians. Both their fore and hind-feet are shaped as hands, generally with four fingers and a thumb, so that they can seize or grasp a bough with all alike.
Buffon erroneously remarks of the chimpanzee, that he always walks erect, even when carrying a weight; but this ape, as well as the other anthropomorphous simiæ, proves by the slowness and awkwardness of his movements, when by chance he walks upon even ground, that this position is by no means natural to him, or congenial to his organisation. Man alone of all creatures, possesses an upright walk; the ape, on the contrary, always stoops, and not to lose his equilibrium when walking, is obliged to place his hands upon the back of his head, or on his loins. Thus, in his native wilds, he rarely has recourse to this inconvenient mode of progression, and when forced by some chance or other to quit the trees, he leans while walking upon the finger-knuckles of his anterior extremities, a position which in fact, very much resembles walking on all-fours.
It is, indeed, only necessary to compare the long, robust, and muscular arms of the chimpanzee with his weaker and shorter hind-feet, to be at once convinced that he was never intended for walking. But see with, what rapidity, with what power and grace, he moves from branch to branch, his hind-legs serving him only as hold-fasts, while his chief strength is in his arms. The tree is, without all doubt, for him what the earth is for us, the air for the bird, or the water for the fish.
The simiæ of the Old World are all distinguished by the common character of a narrow partition of the nose like that of man, and by the same number of teeth, each jaw being provided with ten grinders, two canine teeth, and four incisors, as in the human race. The large apes, or tailless monkeys, resemble us besides in many other respects, as well in their external appearance as in their anatomical structure; and form, as it were, the caricature of man, both by their gestures and by glimpses of a higher intelligence.
Creatures so remarkably endowed have naturally at all times attracted a great share of attention, for if even the lowest links in the chain of animated beings lay claim to our interest, how much more must this be the case with beings whose faculties seem almost to raise them to the rank of our relations. The question how far this similarity extends has naturally given rise to many acute investigations and been differently answered, according as naturalists were more or less inclined to depress man to the level of the ape, or to widen the gulf between them. The former, pointing to the brutality of the lowest savages, would willingly make us believe that we are nothing but an improved edition of the Uran, while the latter cite in favour of their opinion, the incommensurable distance which exists between even the most degraded specimens of humanity and the most perfect quadrumana. Man alone is capable of continually progressive improvement; in him alone each generation inherits the acquirements of its fathers, and transmits the growing treasure to its sons, while the ape, like all other animals, constantly remains at the same point. The lowest savage knows how to make fire; the ape, though he may have seen the operation performed a thousand times, and have enjoyed the genial warmth of the glowing embers, will never learn the simple art. His hairy skin is a sufficient proof of his low intellect, an infallible sign that as he never would be able to provide himself with an artificial clothing, Nature was obliged to protect him against the inclemencies of the cold nights and the pouring rain. As man advances in age, his mind acquires a greater depth and a wider range. In the ape, on the contrary, signs of a livelier intelligence are only exhibited during youth, and as the animal waxes in years, its physiognomy acquires a more brutal expression; its forehead recedes, its jaws project, and instead of expanding to a higher perfection, its mental faculties are evidently clouded by a premature decline.
Both in Africa and Asia, we find large anthropomorphous apes, but while the Chimpanzee and the Gorilla exclusively belong to the African wilds, the Uran and the Gibbons are confined to the torrid regions of South Asia.