28 



THE APES AXD MONKEYS. 



One sees whole companies on the tree-tops, a single 

 troop sometimes numbering more than fifty. It is 

 best to study these troops at a distance. At the 

 approach of .Man they raise a terrible noise, jump- 

 ing furiously from branch to branch, thereby often 

 breaking strong boughs, which 'they throw down at 

 the pursuer." I ? i 



The Budeng A captive Budeng is a quiet, gentle, 

 in patient creature. In Antwerp a Bu- 



Captivity. deng lived among Macaques and other 

 little Monkeys, which were forever teasing and tor- 

 menting him, and he never thought of retaliating. 

 The scene was very grotesque when a Guenon, 

 barely a year old, compelled the big Monkey to 

 attend him, and brought him to order by pitilessly 

 boxing his ears and pinching him. One cannot 

 doubt that good-nature is the essential quality of 

 the Budeng mind, and very nearly misses that spirit 

 of mischief and malice that appertains to all others 

 of the Monkey tribe. The Budeng also seems to 

 suffer much from a foreign climate. In captivity 

 abroad he enjoys every glimpse of the sun, and is 

 happy when he can bask but for a few moments in 

 the rays of that life-giving orb, whose glow bestows 

 on his native country all the splendor of the tropics. 



The Long-Nosed There is another tribe that is now 

 Monkey of separated from the Slender Monkeys 

 Borneo. proper, the Long-nosed or Proboscis 



Monkey, or Kahau ( Nasalis larvatus). In general 

 this Monkey has the structure of the Slender or Sa- 

 cred Monkeys ; but the long nose, which is movable 

 in every direction and capable of being projected 

 or drawn in, lends his countenance a highly peculiar 

 aspect. The body is slender, the tail very long, the 

 extremities are nearly of equal length, the cheek- 

 pouches are lacking. The nose forms a hook-like 

 projection over the upper lip, is rather broad in its 

 middle part, pointed at the end and shows a slight 

 furrow in the median line ; the nostrils are very 

 large and can be considerably dilated. In the young 

 animal this organ is small and blunt, and reaches its 

 full size only in the adult Monkey. According to C. 

 Bock, it is a peculiarity distinguishing only the adult 

 male, and lacking in the female. The fur is thick 

 and soft ; the hair is short on the parting, longer on 

 the back of the head and sides of the face, and on 

 the neck it goes to form a collar. The color of this 

 Monkey is red. The extreme length of the Long- 

 nosed Monkey is five feet. The females are smaller, 

 but are said to be capable of reproduction before 

 they have attained their complete growth. They 

 live in bands in Borneo. Their life in the wild state 

 is very little known. According to Wurmb, they 

 assemble together in large troops at mornings and 

 evenings and howl, the cry bearing some resem- 

 blance to the word " Kahau," whence they derive 

 their name. Although at first glance the Kahau's 

 nose looks like a burlesque of the same organ in 

 Man, the real resemblance is slight, for the nostrils 

 are at the extremity of the nose. 



THE THUMBLESS MONKEYS. 



The African relatives of the Slender Monkeys, the 

 Thumbless Monkeys (Colobits), are striking animals, 

 distinguished by their peculiar color, and queer but 

 beautiful manes. India shows more life and color 

 than arid Africa, and so the Slender Monkeys are of 

 a lighter and brighter hue than the Thumbless Monk- 

 eys, though one cannot say that the latter are less 

 pleasing to the eye than the former. On the whole, 



the differences between the two groups are but slight. 

 The Thumbless Monkeys are mainly distinguished 

 from the Slender Monkeys in having the thumbs on 

 the two fore-limbs docked or stunted. Their body is 

 slender and graceful, the snout is short, the tail very 

 long and the limbs also long and slight ; the cheek- 

 pouches are lacking. 



Guereza, Among these animals we ought to con- 



Handsomest sider the Guereza ( Colobus guereza) first. 



of Monkeys. He is indisputably the handsomesi of 

 all Monkeys. His color is exceedingly prettv, and 

 his hair as peculiar and, at the same time, striking in 

 appearance as that of any other animal in the Monkey 

 family. The merit of discovery of this beautiful crea- 

 ture belongs to the distinguished German, Ruppell, 

 who found it on his Abyssinian tour, in the province 

 of Godsham, and gave it the same scientific name as 

 that employed by the natives. This Monkey was 

 previously very little known. Hiob Ludolf men- 

 tioned it in his valuable work on Ethiopia. Ruppell 

 saw a living Guereza and so could write about it from 

 his own experience. After him several other natural- 

 ists have observed it. I found the skin of a Guereza 

 on the lower White Nile, in the possession of a Has- 

 sanie, who used it as a tobacco-pouch, and who told 

 me that farther south the Guereza was by no means 

 a rarity. Heuglin also saw it frequently in Abyssinia 

 and along the White Nile, and had reliable reports 

 concerning the Monkey's existence in quite different 

 parts of Central Africa ; hence we may conclude that 

 the animal ranges over a larger area than is com- 

 monly supposed. Thompson found it in the Massai 

 country, and, according to Johnston, Hans Meyer 

 saw it on the Kilima Ndjaro, at a height of three 

 thousand feet above sea level, and also farther to 

 the south in the Kahe country. 



The Guereza is indeed a magnificent animal. On 

 a beautiful black velvet bod)', a white head-band, a 

 white neck, chin, throat, belt or mane, and tail-tuft 

 stand out in magnificent relief. But each white hair 

 has also brown ringlets on it, and this produces a 

 silver-gray impression of the whole. The mane, if I 

 may so call his side-belt, hangs on both sides like a 

 beautiful Bedouin cape and serves as an indescribably 

 handsome adornment. 



Hunting The hunting of the Guereza is attended 

 the with a great many difficulties. He is nearly 



Guereza. se cure from all dangers in his favorite 

 haunts, the tops of high trees. A rifle in the hands 

 of a native is a comparatively harmless thing, and 

 it is lucky that such is the case ; for if the Abys- 

 sinians knew how to handle a rifle, they probably 

 would have already exterminated this fine animal. 

 In former times he was much persecuted, for a 

 shield covered with a Guereza skin was a thing 

 much valued and consequently much sought after. 

 The shields of the Abyssinians and of the other East 

 African tribes were of oblong shape and were made 

 of the hides of Antelopes or Hippopotami ; and 

 these were covered with the side and back skin of 

 the Guereza and in this way showed the entire mane 

 as their chief ornament. 



In Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, a Guereza 

 skin used to command the price of one dollar, a 

 sum which might have bought half a dozen fat 

 sheep. Now their value has fallen, for fortunately 

 the shields are no longer in use. I say fortunately, 

 for in this way the attractive creature will be spared 

 and escape the mania of persecution, which man 

 everywhere exhibits against " his first-born brothers." 

 So far as I know living Guerezas have onlv twice 



