ok THE LAR GIBBON. 
These children of the eloquent and swift deity, Mercury, and the Naiad offspring 
of the waters, were supposed to combine the space-traversing attributes of both parents, 
and so the name of “Lar” is sufficiently appropriate for this most agile of animals. 
The derivation of the name Gibbon is rather doubtful, although it is of great 
antiquity. The opinion which seems to be most in accordance with probability i is, that 
the term is a corruption of Kophin, a Chaldaic word, signifying an ape. Delachamp 
thinks that it may be derived from Aezpos, which in Strabo’s version of the well-known 
word MKephos, signifies an ape or monkey. The difficulty in the latter case appears 
to be that the Keipon resides in Ethiopia, while the Gibbons are Asiatic animals. 
The present species is sometimes called the “ White-handed Gibbon,” because the 
hands and feet are of a much paler tint than the rest of the body and limbs. 
There are slight differences in the colour of the fur in different individuals, but the 
prevailing tint is a darkish brown, changing to a creamy hue about the hands, and the face 
is quite black. Some specimens have the fur nearly black, while others assume a whitish 
tint along the throat and abdomen, and several specimens have the fur of the hind 
quarters rather paler than that of the remainder of the body. 
In all the Gibbons, the hair is thicker and finer than in any of the preceding 
animals. It is short, being only an inch or so in length, and has more of a woolly 
appearance than is seen in most of the monkey tribe. 
Many animals exhibit great differences of form and colour in the various periods of 
life, and in the two sexes. It has often happened that the greatest confusion has been 
caused by these changes of form, so that the young, and the two sexes of an animal have 
been described as several distinct species. We are the more liable to error when we 
cannot watch the entire development of the creature, and therefore such animals as the 
monkey tribes are very embarrassing to the systematic naturalist. 
The Lar Gibbon seems to be one of these animals, and is probably identical with 
the Little Gibbon ; this latter animal appears to be only a smaller specimen than usual, 
and its disparity of colour to be of little importance. The proportions are precisely the 
same as those of the Lar Gibbon, and although the general tints are so unlike those of the 
Gibbons as to earn from Cuvier the name of “ Variegated Orang,” yet we have already 
seen that the tint of the fur is extremely capricious, and can form no true criterion, 
unless accompanied by other distinctions. 
The Lar, or White-handed Gibbon is an inhabitant of Malacca and Siam. 
On looking at a living specimen of this animal, or indeed at any of the same genus, 
the hands are seen to differ much from those of the large apes, and especially in the 
shape and direction of the thumb. As we have already seen, the thumb of the 
chimpansee is very large, and is so formed that it can be opposed to the fingers in order 
to grasp any object between them. But the thumb of these tree-traversing apes is 
comparatively small, is hardly opposable to the fingers, and is placed in the same 
direction as the fingers themselves. Moreover, the bones of the hand are so formed, 
that the thumb appears to take its origin from. the wrist, and not to be set on after 
the usual manner. Sometimes it is found that the first and second fingers of the hinder 
paws or hands are fixed together. 
The reason of this arrangement is evident to anyone who has practised gymnastic 
exercises. In order to grasp a pole in the firmest manner, and with the least expenditure 
of strength, the fingers must be set close to each other, the thumb placed against the 
forefinger, and the hand hooked over the pole. In this position the muscles of the 
fore-arm are not subjected to the exhausting grasp of the thumb, and the power of 
the limbs is applied in precisely the right direction. 
So it is with these apes, the most accomplished ; eymnasts in the world. If a monkey 
be watched while dancing about the bars and poles of his cage (not on hanging ropes, 
for then the thumb is wanted), it will be seen that the animal seldom or never grasps 
a horizontal bar, except occasionally with the hinder paws. The hands are always just 
hooked over the bars, and by their aid the animal flings itself from one place to another, 
using the grasp of the hinder feet to check itself when it wishes to sit still for a 
time. 
