264 COMMON BEASTS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



and leaping among the branches, and, even where 

 they abound, the society of such handsome animals 

 is preferable to that of such debasedly hideous ones 

 as common bandars. But, in places in which they 

 are present in large numbers, the amount of mischief 

 that they are guilty of when invading gardens and 

 houses becomes very objectionable. In some Indian 

 towns they seem almost entirely to replace common 

 monkeys. This is very marked in the case of 

 Ahmedabad, where they are constantly to be seen 

 on the tops of the houses, and where the trees in 

 the gardens are full of troops of them, leaping and 

 swinging about among the branches. It is almost 

 impossible to see a party of them among trees and 

 rocks, some sitting in serious meditation, and others 

 indulging in the wildest gambols, without remember- 

 ing the striking passage in the Bible in which the 

 picture of anticipated desolation is accentuated by 

 the statement that "satyrs shall dance there." 

 Himalayan langurs, S. schistaceus, are very common 

 and troublesome in some hill-stations. They abound 

 on the Simla Hill, where troops of them are often 

 to be seen storming along through the tops of the 

 trees overhanging the roads, or precipitating them- 

 selves headlong downwards through the forest, 

 clothing the precipitous slopes of the great khads. 



It is hard for any one who has had much 

 acquaintance with localities infested by common 

 Bengal monkeys to find a good word to say of 



