OUR FOUR-HANDED RELATIVES. 53 



the floor a bucketful of Pontchartrain crabs, and during 

 her momentary absence the monkeys had fallen victims 

 to the cause of free inquiry. Somehow or other, the 

 cook's manoeuvres had drawn their attention to the 

 bucket, and, having managed to upset it, their ring- 

 tails had got entangled with the not less prehensile 

 crustaceans. 



It is a curious fact that all the larger varieties of the 

 American monkeys are endowed with a voice of almost 

 superhuman power, while the apes of the Old World are 

 a comparatively silent race. The reason may be that the 

 jaguar, the chief enemy of the Brazilian ring-tails, does 

 not like to be yelled at, while the same expedient would 

 be unavailing against the antagonists, or rather rivals, of 

 the Oriental four-handers. The Rhesus baboon, though 

 one of the demi-gods of the Hindoo pantheon, is about 

 the most undesirable pet a menagerie could get hold 

 of. A big brute of this species, an almost hairless old 

 male, named Bhunder-Beg or Sahib-Onki-Walla, was 

 presented to the new Zoological Garden of Marseilles, 

 but, in spite of his unusual size, the superintendent sent 

 him back by the very next steamer. " I should like to 

 keep him for your kind intentions' sake," he wrote to 

 the donor, " but it won't do : with the sole exception of 

 Petronius Arbiter, your Bh., surnamed S. O. W., is the 

 most obscene personage known to ancient or modern 

 history." 



Monkeys are amical rather than gregarious creatures : 



