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.