524 THE SIMLE OF THE OLD WORLD 



was, however, determined to punish them for their impudence ; 

 so the next time they united as before in a body, he watched 

 his opportunity, and seizing a rope, and swinging towards them, 

 caught one of them by the tail, and dragged him up the rigging. 

 If, in the ascent, he required both hands, he would pass the tail 

 into his foot. It was most grotesque to see his perfect gravity 

 of countenance, whilst the poor suffering monkey grinned, 

 chattered, and twisted about, making the most strenuous and 

 fruitless endeavours to escape, during which his countenance, at 

 all times funny, had now terror added to its usual beauty. 

 After having dragged the culprit some distance, the siamang let 

 him go, and had he not seized a rope in falling, he would hardly 

 have escaped a compound fracture. 



" At dinner his station was on a corner of the table, between 

 the captain and myself. When, from any of his ludicrous 

 actions, we all burst out in loud laughter, he would vent his in- 

 dignation by a barking noise, and by regarding the persons 

 laughing with a most serious look, until they ceased their in- 

 decorous behaviour. 



'* When we spoke a ship at sea, his curiosity seemed to be much 

 excited, and he would invariably mount the rigging until it 

 was out of sight, wistfully gazing after it. When strangers came 

 on board he approached them with caution. 



"When the poor animal lay on a bed of sickness from dysentery, 

 produced by cold, as much inquiry was made after his health 

 as if he had been of human form divine, and his death excited 

 great regret. Even when ill, he preferred going on deck in the 

 cold air with persons to whom he was attached, to remaining in 

 the warm cabin with those for whom he had no regard." 



We shall see in the next chapter tliat the American monkeys 

 are totally different from those of the Old World ; but also in 

 the eastern hemisphere, each part of the world has its peculiar 

 families and genera of simijB. Thus, besides the uran and the 

 gibbon, Asia exclusively possesses the semnopitheci and the 

 macaques, while Africa, besides the chimpanzee and the gorilla, 

 enjoys the undivided honour of giving birth to the families of 

 the cercopitheci, mangabeys, colobi, magots, and baboons. 



The Semnopitheci are characterised by a short face, rounded 

 ears, a slender body, short thumbs, and a strong muscular tail, 

 terminated by a close tuft of hair, and surpassing in length 



