40 THE ENTELLUS 
in years, the fur darkens in colour, chiefly by means of black hairs that are inserted 
at intervals. The face, hands, and feet are black. 
It is a native of India, and fortunately for itself, the mythological religion is so 
closely connected with it that it lives in perfect security. Monkeys are never short- 
sighted in spying out an advantage, and the Entellus monkeys are no exception to the 
rule, Feeling themselves masters of the situation, and knowing full well that they will 
not be punished for any delinquency, they 
take up their position in a village with as 
much complacency as if they had built it 
themselves. They parade the streets, they 
mix on equal terms with the inhabitants, 
they clamber over the houses, they frequent 
the shops, especially those of the ‘pastrycooks 
and fruit-sellers, keeping their proprietors 
constantly on the watch. 
Reverencing the monkey too much to 
afford active resistance to his depredations, 
the shopkeepers have recourse to passive 
means, and by covering the roofs of their 
shops with thorn-bushes, deprive the thieving 
deity of his chief point of vantage. Let it not 
ans be matter of wonder that a thief can be a god, 
resby tes Entellus. + sys 
for even the civilised Romans acknowledged 
Mercury to be the god of thieves, and they only borrowed their mythology from a much 
more ancient source. Certainly the Hoonuman gives practical proof of his claims to 
be the representative of such a deity ; for he possesses four hands with which to steal, 
and neglects no opportunity of using them all. 
Conscious of the impropriety of its behaviour, the monkey does not steal anything 
while the proprietor is looking at it, but employs various subtle stratagems in order to 
draw off the owner's attention while it filches his goods. Many ludicrous anecdotes of 
such crafty tricks are known to everyone who has visited India, and employed his eyes. 
The banyan-tree is the favoured habitation of these monkeys ; and among its many 
branches they play strange antics, undisturbed by any foes excepting snakes, These 
reptiles are greatly dreaded by the monkeys, and with good reason. However, it is said 
that the monkeys kill many more snakes in proportion to their own loss, and do so with 
a curiously refined cruelty. A snake may be coiled among the branches of the banyan, 
fast asleep, when it is spied by a Hoonuman. After satisfying himself that the reptile 
really is sleeping, the monkey steals upon it noiselessly, grasps it by the neck, tears it 
from the branch, and hurries to the ground. He then runs to a flat stone, and begins to 
grind down the reptile’s head upon it, grinning and chattering with delight ‘at’ the 
writhings and useless strugeles of the tortured sné ike, and occasionally inspecting his work 
to see how it is progressing. When he has rubbed away the poor animal’s jaws, so as to 
deprive it of its poison-fangs, he holds great rejoicings over his helpless foe, and tossing 
it to the young monkeys, looks complacently at its destruction. 
Besides the reverence in which this animal is held through its deification, it has other 
claims to respect through the doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls 
through the various forms of animal life. From the semblance of human form which is 
borne by the monkeys, their frames were supposed to be the shrines of human souls that 
had nearly reached perfection, and thereby made their habitations royal. Therefore, to 
insult the Hoonuman is considered to be a crime equivalent to that of insulting one of 
the royal family, while the murder of a monkey is high treason, and punished by 
instant death. Many times have enthusiastic naturalists, or thoughtless “ griffs,” en- 
dangered their lives by wounding or killing one of these sacred beings. The report of 
such a sacrilegious offence is enough to raise the whole population in arms against the 
offender ; and those very men who study cruelty as a science, and will inflict the keenest 
tortures on their fellow-beings without one feeling of compunction—who will leaye an 
