146 



ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



minion. But in the cities the Brahmins can still raise 

 the wind to the pitch of fanning the fire of religious 

 enthusiasm ; and while there is flour in the barrel of 

 a true believer there is always bread for the sacred 

 baboons. Besides, hunger sharpens the wits of saints 

 as well as of sinners, and with their four sets of long 

 fingers the quadrumanous children of Brahm generally 

 find ways of their own to keep body and soul together. 

 They congregate at the river-wharves where the bum- 

 boats of the natives discharge their cargoes, and even 

 canvass the European warehouses, though with more 

 caution, on account of the sad irreligion of the low-caste 

 Briton. In the market they mix with the crowd, and 

 are apt to mistake spotted apples for offal and sound 

 apples for spotted ones : after a fast-day they become 

 semi-nocturnal and prowl around the stands of confec- 

 tioners who sell their wares by torchlight. They also 

 have a wondrous memory for faces and the localities 

 of what our tramps call square-meal houses : a house- 

 keeper who feeds a gang of baboons at the door of her 

 residence can count upon permanent custom for the rest 

 of the season. Subsequent rebuffs are unavailing; the 

 saints yield to force, but come back the next day : true 

 followers of their countryman Buddha, they seem to 

 accept injuries as an earnest of benefits, and give the 

 offender a chance to make amends. 



Like Italian lazzaroni, city-baboons live in cliques, — 

 clannish communities, very exclusive in times of scarcity, 



