XLhc Bpes an& flfoonfce^s. 



FIRST ORDER: Pitheci. 



AGLER calls the 

 Apes trans- 

 formed Men, 

 thereby but giving 

 utterance to the opinion 

 of all nations, ancient as 

 well as modern, which 

 have had anything to do 

 with these strange creatures. 

 Pretty nearly the reverse of 

 his words would correspond to 

 the scientific opinion of to-day ; 

 which is that it is not the Apes 

 that are transformed Men, but that 

 the latter are more perfectly devel- 

 oped cousins of the former. 

 Among the ancients the Egyptians 

 and Hindoos seem to have been the 

 only ones who showed a certain affection 

 for the Apes. The old Egyptians chiseled 

 their likeness in indestructible porphyry and 

 modeled the images of their gods after them; 

 the old Hindoos built them houses and tem- 

 ples, a practice which their descendants are still 

 following. Solomon imported several Monkeys 

 from Ophir and the Romans kept them in their 

 houses as pets, dissected them in their anatomical 

 studies, sometimes used them in fights with wild 

 beasts, but never came to be on very friendly terms 

 with them, and, like Solomon, never thought them to 

 be anything else than animals. The Arabians go a little 

 further : they think them Men who, for their sins, have been 

 condemned by Allah to bear the form of Apes, their outward 

 appearance seeming to them to be a curious blending of devil 

 and Man. 



Our own manner of thinking is not very different from that of 

 the Arabians. Instead of recognizing them as our next of kin we 

 only see in them caricatures of ourselves, and condemn them without 

 mercy, finding only those kinds attractive that show the least likeness 

 to a human being, while those in which the likeness is more distinct 

 excite our disgust. Our aversion to the Apes is based as well on their 

 physical as their mental traits. They resemble Men both too much and too 

 little. While the human body shows perfect harmony, that of the Ape often 

 seems a repulsive caricature. A single look at the skeletons of a Man and 

 an Ape shows us the difference in their respective structures, though this 

 difference is only conditional. At any rate it is wrong to term the Apes ill- 

 shaped, as people usually do. There are beautiful Apes, and there are very ugly 

 ones ; the same is true of Men, for an Eskimo, a Bushman or a native of New Holland 

 is by no means a model for a statue of Apollo. Apes taken by themselves are very well 

 endowed animals ; it is only when compared with the highest developed Men that they appear to be 

 caricatures of the superior being. 



The size of the Apes differs within rather wide boundaries, the Gorilla being as large as a well-grown 



