THE MAHA, THE GREAT WANDEROO.[35]
This is a larger Monkey than the last, and lives in the hills higher up the country of Ceylon than the Nestor. It is wilder and more powerful than its lowland neighbour, and is rarely seen by Europeans. It clings to the deep woods, and seldom approaches the few roads which have been made through these solitudes. There is a good deal of the Bear in its general appearance, and Major Forbes, travelling in Ceylon, noticed this first of all. He says:—“A species of very large Monkey, that passed some distance before me, when resting on all-fours looked so like a Ceylon Bear that I took him for one.” Hence the name Ursinus.
Another very rare Monkey in Ceylon is, for some hidden cause, named Semnopithecus Thersites. Thersites was the most ugly and the most impudent talker of the Greeks before Troy, and probably this Monkey is ugly and impudent in the extreme. It is deficient in the head-tuft, which adds to the beauty of the genus; but its temper is good, and it is grateful. One which was caught was fond of being noticed and petted, stretching out his limbs in succession to be scratched, drawing himself up so that his ribs might be reached by the finger, and closing his eyes during the operation, evincing his satisfaction by grimaces absolutely ludicrous. He was fond of fresh vegetables, plantains, and fruit, and ate freely of boiled rice, beans, and grain.
The last Ceylonese Monkey to be noticed is the Semnopithecus Priamus.
It inhabits the northern and eastern provinces, and the wooded hills which occur in those portions of the island. In appearance it differs both in size and in colour from the common Wanderoo (S. Nestor), being larger and greyer, and its habits are much less reserved. Where the population is comparatively numerous, these Monkeys become so familiarised with the presence of man as to exhibit the utmost daring and indifference. A flock of them will take possession of a Palmyra palm, and so effectually can they crowd and conceal themselves among the leaves that, on the slightest danger, the whole party becomes invisible on the instant. The presence of a Dog, however, excites such an irrepressible curiosity, that, in order to watch his movements, they never fail to betray themselves. They may be seen frequently congregated on the roof of a native hut; and some years ago the child of a European clergyman having been left on the ground by the nurse, was so teased and bitten by them as to cause its death. The Ceylon people hold the singular belief that the remains of a Monkey are never found in the forest—a belief which they have embodied in a proverb, that “He who has seen a white crow, the nest of the piddybird, a straight cocoa-nut tree, or a dead Monkey, is certain to live for ever.” “This piece of folk-lore has evidently reached Ceylon from India,” writes Sir J. Emerson Tennent, from whose work the extract is taken, “where it is believed that persons dwelling on the spot where a Hoonuman Monkey (Semnopithecus entellus) has been killed, will die, and that even its bones are unlucky, and that no house erected where they are hid will prosper. Hence, when a house is to be built, one of the employments of wise men is to ascertain by their science that none such are concealed; and Buchanan observes that it is perhaps owing to the fear of this ill-luck that no native will acknowledge having seen a dead Hoonuman.”
Sir J. Emerson Tennent describes the method in which these Priamus Monkeys attack a garden, which is quite after the fashion of modern human military tactics. A green sward separated the garden of one of his friends from the jungle, and across this a single Monkey would cautiously steal about twenty paces, and halt to assure himself, by eye and ear, that all was safe. Presently a second would venture out from the trees, pass in front of the first, and squat himself after making another reconnaissance. A third and a fourth would then stealthily approach, always gaining an advance beyond the last vedette, and finally the whole body, having ascertained the absence of danger, advanced hastily but noiselessly to the enclosure; and having with infinite rapidity secured a sufficient supply of fruit, the troop dispersed simultaneously, with a rush and an exulting scamper, conscious that caution was no longer necessary. Possibly this Monkey becomes occasionally an albino, for white Monkeys having the general shape of the Priamus are captured every now and then not far from Colombo; and Spence Hardy mentions, in his work on “Eastern Monachism,” that on the occasion of his visit to the Great Temple of Dambool he encountered a troop of white Monkeys on the rock on which it is situated.
In the Semnopitheci and in the species of the next genus (Colobos) the face is long, the forehead rounded, and there is a decided angle to the jaw, so that the facial angle is considerable.[36]
GENUS COLOBOS.[37]
All the Monkeys of the genus Semnopithecus which have been found by travellers and naturalists live in Asia and its islands, and thus their geographical limit is precise. Now, there are some Monkeys which resemble them in most points, and which are only found in the forests of tropical Africa; that is to say, in Abyssinia on the east, and from Gambia to Angola on the west. They are also found on the Island of Fernando Po. These have the thumbs of the hands extremely small, and they are but mere useless projections. They are Semnopitheci without thumbs, and the Greek word κολοβός (“docked or stunted”) has been used to designate them.
The kinds of Monkeys included in the genus Colobos are not very numerous, and they are interesting more on account of their beautiful skins, which form ornaments and articles of commerce in Africa, and for those suggestions which must occur to the mind of every one who thinks a little about natural history, regarding the cause of the absence of such an important structure as the thumb in a group of animals, whose other characters are similar to those of a genus possessing it. Very little is known about their habits in a state of nature, and few have ever been brought alive to Europe.