116 MONKEYS. 



I once resided a month in that town, occupying 

 a large house on the banks of the river, belonging 

 to a rich native ; it had no doors, and the monkeys 

 frequently came into the room where we were sit- 

 ting, carrying off bread and other things from the 

 breakfast table. If we were sleeping, or sitting in 

 a corner of the room, they would ransack every other 

 part. I often feigned sleep, to observe their ma- 

 noeuvres, and the caution with which they proceed- 

 ed to examine every thing. I was much amused to 

 see their sagacity and alertness. They would often 

 spring twelve or fifteen feet from the house to 

 another, with one, sometimes two young ones 

 under their bellies, carrying with them also a loaf 

 of bread, some sugar, or other article ; and to have 

 seen the care they always took of their young, 

 would have been a good lesson to many mothers. 



Whilst I was stationed at Muttra, two young 

 officers on a sporting excursion at Bindrabun, 

 imprudently fired at a monkey, which enraged the 

 inhabitants, Fakeers, and other Hindoos of the 

 place, to such a degree, as to cause them to assem- 

 ble in a large body ; they pelted the gentlemen, and 

 the elephant on which they rode, with bricks and 

 other missiles, and drove him into the river, where 

 they were both drowned with the driver ; the ele- 



