ANIMALS. tSl 



keep its erect posture at the same time. This animal, next ta 

 the oran-outang and the ape, most nearly resembles mankind, 

 not only in form, but in gentle manners and tractable disposition. 

 It is a native of the East Indies, and particularly found alonjj 

 the coasts of Coromandel. 



The last of the ape kind is the cy.vocephalus, or the magot 

 of Buffon.* This animal wants a tail, like the former, althougli 

 there is a small protuberance at that part, which yet is rathei 

 formed by the skin than the bone. It differs also in having a 

 large callous red rump. The face is prominent, and approaches 

 more to that of quadrupeds than of man. The body is covered 

 with a bro^vnish hair, and yellow on the belly. It is about 

 three feet and a half, or four feet high, and is a native of most 

 parts of Africa and the East. As it recedes from man in its 

 form, so also it appears different in its dispositions, being sullen, 

 vicious, and untractable. ' 



THE BABOON. 



Descending from the more perfect of the monkey kinds, we 

 come to the baboon and its varieties, a large, fierce, and formi- 



• The Magot or Barbary Ape, placed by Cuvier at the head of the baboons, 

 is an animal not without intelligence. It is to Ms intelligence that the magot 

 owes the numberless torments inflicted upon him by the mountebanks and 

 ehowmen. Excepting the orans and the gibbons, he is the only monkey 

 of the Old Continent capable of receiving a certain degree of instructiou. 

 The others, stupid or ferocious, were incapable in a state of slavery of com- 

 prehending any tiling ; but they have the consequent advantage of preserv- 

 ing their repose, while the raagot is constantly exposed to lose both his com- 

 fort and freedom. Notwithstanding tlus, the male magot only submits to 

 the dominion of man in extreme youth, and when his active faculties have 

 not yet acquired their complete force and development. Arrived at adoles. 

 tence he begins to be less tractable, and, in a short time, refuses submission 

 of every kind. Good treatment and bad, are equally without effect upon 

 him. Alike incapable of confidence and of fear, he evinces nothing but a 

 savage love of independence, which appears to be his onl y want. Tlie painful 

 state into which tliis feeling throws him, especially when it is strongly ex- 

 cited by severity, soon plunges him into a melancholy wliich is speedily fol. 

 lowed by consumption and death. 



The Magot is considered more properly to belong to the Monkeys than 

 the Baboons, as the mere absence of a tail is insufficient to clMiracterize tlio 

 larger divisions of the monkey tribe. The same may be said of what is 

 called the Black Ape, a monkey of extremely rare occurrence. 



1 Omnes femellae hujusce et precedentiiun, ut et fere sequentium speci- 

 ernin, meustruali patiuntur fluxu sicut in femini.'i. 



a. 2 N 



