THE PROBOSCIS MONKEY 525 



that of all tlie other quadrumana of the Old World. To this 

 genus belongs the celebrated Proboscis Monkey ( Semnopithecus 

 nasicus) of Borneo, who is distinguished from all other simise 

 ])y the possession of a prominent nasal organ, which lends a 

 liiglily ludicrous expression to the melancholy aspect of his phy- 

 siognomy. " When excited and angry," says Mr. Adams, who 

 liad many opportunities of examining this singular creature in 

 its native woods, "the female resembles some tanned and peevish 

 hag, snarling and shrewish. They progress on all-fours, and 

 sometimes, while on the ground, raise themselves upright and 

 look about them. When they sleep, they squat on their hams, 

 and bow their heads upon the breast. When disturbed, they 

 utter a short impatient cry, between a sneeze and a scream, like 

 that of a spoilt and passionate child ; and in the selection of their 

 food they appear very dainty, frequently destroying a fruit, and 

 hardly tasting it. When they emit their peculiar wheezing or 

 hissing sound, they avert and wrinkle the nose, and open the 

 mouth wide. In the male, the nose is a curved, tubular trunk, 

 large pendulous, and fleshy ; but in the female it is smaller, 

 recurved, and not caruncular." 



Underthe ugly form of the Huniman (Semnopithecus entellus), 

 the Hindoos venerate the transformed hero who abstracted the 

 sweet fruitof the mango from the garden of a giant in Ceylon, and 

 enriched India with the costly gift. As a punishment for this 

 offence he was condemned to the stake, and ever since his hands 

 and face have remained black. Out of gratitude for his past 

 services, the Hindoos allow him the free use of their gardens, 

 and take great care to protect him from sacrilegious Europeans. 

 While the French naturalist Duvaucel was at Chandernagor, a 

 guard of pious Bramins was busy scaring away the sacred 

 animals with cymbals and drums, lest the stranger, to whom they 

 very justly attributed evil intentions, might be tempted to add 

 their skins to his collection. 



The semnopitheci are scattered over Asia in so great a multi- 

 plicity of forms, that Ceylon alone possesses four different species, 

 each of which has appropriated to itself a different district of 

 the wooded country, and seldom encroaches on the domain of 

 its neighbours. " When observed in their native wilds," says 

 Sir J. E. Tennent, " a party of twenty or thirty of the Wanderoos 

 of the low country, the species best known in Europe (Presbytes 



