LANGURS. 79 



Sir Emerson Tennent, writing of the typical purple -faced 

 monkey, which he terms the wanderu of the low country, says that it 

 is far the commonest of the Singalese langurs, and that " it is an active and intelli- 

 gent creature, little larger than the common bonneted macaque, and far from 

 being so mischievous as the other monkeys in the island. In captivity it is 

 remarkable for the gravity of its demeanour, and for an air of melancholy in 

 its expression and movements which are completely in character with its snowy 

 beard and venerable aspect. In disposition it is gentle and confiding, sensible 

 in the highest degree of kindness, and eager for endearing affection, uttering 

 a low plaintive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is particularly cleanly 

 in its habits when domesticated, and spends much of its time in trimming its 

 fur, and carefully divesting its hair of particles of dust. Those which I kept at 

 my house near Colombo were chiefly fed upon plantains and bananas, but for 

 nothing did they exhibit a greater partiality than the rose-coloured flow r ers of 

 the red hibiscus. These they devoured with unequivocal gusto; they likewise 

 relished the leaves of many other trees, and even the bark of a few of the more 

 succulent ones." 



After referring to the white monkey, which he regards as merely a variety 

 of the lowland wanderu, Sir Emerson Tennent proceeds with his account of the 

 latter, and states that " when observed in their native wilds, a party of twenty or 

 thirty of these creatures is generally busily engaged in the search for berries and 

 buds. They are seldom to be seen on the ground, except when they may have 

 descended to recover seeds or fruit which have fallen at the foot of their favourite 

 trees. When disturbed, their leaps are prodigious ; but, generally speaking, their 

 progress is made not so much by leaping as by swinging from branch to branch, 

 using their powerful arms alternately ; and, when baffled by distance, flinging 

 themselves obliquely so as to catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the 

 momentum caused by their descent being sufficient to cause a rebound of the branch, 

 that carries them upward again till they grasp a higher and more distant one, and 

 thus continue their headlong flight. In these perilous achievements wonder is 

 excited less by the surpassing agility of these little creatures (frequently encumbered 

 as they are by their young, which cling to them in their career) than by the quick- 

 ness of their eye and the unerring accuracy with which they seem almost to 

 calculate the angle at which a descent will enable them to cover a given distance, 

 and the recoil to attain a higher altitude." 



The same writer then goes on to say that in the hills the typical black form 

 of this monkey is replaced by the so-called bear monkey. " The natives, who 

 designate the latter as the Maha, or Great Wanderu, to distinguish it from the 

 Kala, or Black one (the typical purple-faced monkey), with which they are familiar, 

 describe it as much wilder and more powerful than its congener of the lowland 

 forests. It is rarely seen by Europeans, this portion of the country having till 

 very recently been but partially opened ; and even now it is difficult to observe its 

 habits, as it seldom approaches the few roads which wind through these deep 

 solitudes. At early morning, ere the day begins to dawn, its loud and peculiar 

 howl, which consists of a quick repetition of the sounds how, how ! may be frequently 

 heard in the mountain jungles, and forms one of the characteristic noises of these 



