208 ARBOREAL MAN 



mechanical way of assisting their waning powers of foot- 

 grasp. One widespread method is the adoption of a 

 hoop or girdle which encircles the tree and the man's 

 waist, and so allows him to lean back from the trunk 

 while his feet are firmly planted against it. This is a 

 natural mechanical contrivance which enables the climber 

 to use his hands for other purposes than for mere hanging 

 on. His foot-grasp is not good enough to trust to, and 

 an extra support is gained by the waist girdle, which 

 allows a free use to be made of the hands for gathering 

 fruit, incising the bark, or any other purpose. 



Some races do not use the waist girdle, and they rely 

 still more upon the foot-grasp, but supplement it by 

 running a thong between the two big toes. This method 

 is often made use of by Malays in climbing the almost 

 vertical stems of coconut trees. The two feet are 

 pressed firmly against the trunk, and the thong (about 

 one foot long) stretching between the big toes readily 

 adapts itself to the annular irregularities of the bark. 

 The security afforded by this hold is very great. 



But, again, other and more primitive people use no 

 mechanical contrivance at all; they depend entirely 

 upon a foot-grasp just as monkeys do. In some parts 

 of the world coconuts are gathered from the trees before 

 they are ripe enough to fall, and then very commonly, 

 and as a matter of convenience for repeated climbing, 

 the upright stems are notched, producing the so-called 

 " monkey ladder." These notches will not enable an 

 ordinary European to climb the tree in native fashion, 

 but for the native they provide an ascent but little more 

 difficult than the mounting of a stairway. The natives 

 walk up these trees with great facility by taking advantage 

 of the slight irregularities afforded by the notches. 



But in other places coconuts are not gathered they 

 are permitted to fall when ripe, and then no monkey 

 ladder is made upon the trees. In these places when a 

 native climbs a tree to obtain a drinking nut, or to tap 



