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,