There is something very un-monkey-like in the shape of this Abyssinian animal, for it has long white hair, resembling the edge of a cloak, along its sides, and a long tail with a tuft to it. The natives chase it, and are fond of having some of their long hairy skins to cover their shields with. Assembling in little troops, the Guereza keeps well up in the tallest trees, in the neighbourhood of running water. They feed on fruit, grain, and insects, and are inoffensive and wild. The fur is certainly very prettily arranged, and the black and white truly oppose each other well. The colour of the fur of the head and of the greater part of the body is black, but the forehead is white, so are the sides of the face, the throat, and the sides of the neck. There is a mantle-like mop of long hairs starting from the region near the ribs, and the lower part of the back, and covering the flanks in a train behind. It is of a white colour, and exists in both sexes; nevertheless, it is longest in the females and adults. The tail is white, hairy, and tufted.
Another of the Colobi has a very dignified look given to it by a large mass of hair which covers its neck and shoulders like a little cloak. It has slim legs and a long tail. For some reason or other the natives in the neighbourhood of Sierra Leone call it the King of the Monkeys. The face and limbs and body are black, and a great mass of hair starting from the forehead and brushed back from the sides of the face and chin, the neck and shoulders all round, falls down on all sides. This is of a dusky yellow colour. The tail is white. It is called the Cloaked or Many-haired Colobos (Colobos polycomos).
As if to contrast kinds of the genus Colobos, which have great general resemblances, Nature has provided some with red-coloured fur, instead of black and white; for instance, the Bay Monkey (Colobos ferrugineus); and finally, one very interesting species which, like all those mentioned, except the Guereza, comes from West Africa; it has a short fur of an olive colour, with a grey tint beneath and on the limbs. It has no long hairs on the body, and its tail is long and thin. This Colobos verus has not a vestige of a thumb. There are eleven species of this genus.
Besides the fossil Semnopithecus found in the Himalayas others have been discovered in Greece, Würtemberg, and at Montpellier, and in strata of Mid-Tertiary and of Pliocene Age.
CHAPTER VI.
THE DOG-SHAPED MONKEYS (continued). THE GUENONS.[39]
[THE GUENONS]—Where they are Found—Early Notices of them—Resemblance to the Colobi and Macaques—Distinctive Peculiarity of the Group—Often seen in Menageries—Their Terror of Snakes—Peculiar Expression of the Face—Beauty of their Skins—Minor Divisions of the Guenons—[THE DIANA MONKEY]—Origin of the Name—Anecdotes of their Mischief—[THE MONA MONKEY—]Description of one at Paris—[THE WHITE-NOSED MONKEY]—Origin of the Name—[THE TALAPOIN]—Anatomical Peculiarities—[THE GREEN MONKEY]—Found in Senegal in abundance—[THE RED-BELLIED MONKEY]—[THE RED MONKEY]—Observed by Bruce—[THE MANGABEY]—Singularity of its Appearance—Special Structural Peculiarities
THERE are vast numbers of Monkeys living in the African forests which resemble, to a certain extent, those described in the last chapter, but which have such important differences in their construction that they are separated from them, and collected in another genus. They are said only to range in Abyssinia to the Zambesi and from the Gambia to the Congo, but probably all the equatorial parts of the Continent are frequented by them, and they extend far south. They are not found in Madagascar, and, of course, they do not frequent desert places or rocky treeless districts.
Being very numerous, and extremely impudent, as a rule, and full of grimace and mischief, they soon attracted the attention of the ancients, and the beauty of the fur of some made them all the more prized. Hence they were caught, figured, and sent as presents to distant kingdoms. The ancient Egyptians knew of one, which at the present time is found in Nubia, and which is often brought to Europe, being called the Grivet. They engraved it in the catacombs of Ghizeh, whence the figure was described by Denon, and Ehrenberg and De Blainville have drawn it as represented mounted on the long neck of a Camelopard. Many coloured drawings of Egyptian origin also represent a Monkey on all-fours, with a tail curved over its back, and this is probably one of those about to be considered.
They are still called Keb or Kep in the East of Africa, and they are doubtless the κῆβος of the Greeks. Aristotle says for certain that the Cebus, as it was translated by the Latins, is an Ape with a tail.