THE DERRYAS 529 



and remains sitting till he has no longer to fear the wet, which 

 he loves as little as the cat. 



In Abyssinia, Nubia, and South Arabia we find the Derryas 

 ((7. Hamadryas), which enjoyed divine honours among the 

 ancient Egyptians. The general colour of the hair is a mix- 

 ture of light-grey and cinnamon, and in the male that of the 

 head and neck forms a long mane, falling back over the 

 shoulders. The face is extremely long, naked, and of a dirty 

 flesh-colour. This ugly monkey was revered as the symbol 

 of Thoth, the divine father of literature and the judge of man 

 after death. Formerly temples were erected to his honour, 

 and numerous priests ministered to his wants, but now, by a 

 sad change of baboon-fortune, he is shot without ceremony, 

 and his skin pulled over his ears to be stuffed and exhibited 

 in profane museums. 



In the forests of tropical Africa and Asia we find a remark- 

 able group of animals, which, though quadrumanous like the 

 monkeys, essentially differs from them by possessing long curved 

 claws on the index, or also on the middle finger of the hinder ex- 

 tremities ; by a sharp, projecting muzzle, and by a different den- 

 tition. The Loris, remarkable for the slowness of their gait and 

 their large glaring eyes, are exclusively natives of the East Indies; 

 the Galagos, which unite the organisation of the monkeys with 

 the graceful sprightliness of the squirrels, 

 are solely confined to Africa, where they are 

 chiefly found in the gum -forests of Senegal ; 

 the Tarsii, thus named from their elongated 

 tarsi, giving to their hinder limbs a dispro- 

 portionate length, are restricted to part of 

 the Indian archipelago ; but the large island siow-paced Lemur. 

 of Madagascar, where, strange to say, not a single monkey is found, 

 is the chief seat of the family, being the exclusive dwelling- 

 place of the short-tailed Indri, (whom, from his black thick fur 

 and anthropomorphous shape, one would be inclined to reckon 

 among the gibbons), and of the long-tailed Lemurs or Makis. 

 All these gentle and harmless animals are arboreal in their 

 habits, avoid the glaring light of day under the dense covert 

 of the forest, and awaken to a more active existence as soon 



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