THE ENTELLUS. 



ENTELLUS 



Presbytes Eatellus. 



in years, the fur darkens in color, chiefly by means of black hairs that are inserted at 

 intervals. The face, hands, and feet are black. 



It is a native of India, and fortunately for itself, the mythological religion is so closely 

 connected with it that it lives in perfect security. Monkeys are never shortsighted in 

 spying out an advantage, and the Entellus monkeys are no exception to the rule. 

 Feeling themselves masters of the situation, and knowing full well that they will not 



be punished for any delinquency, they 

 take up their position in a village with as 

 much complacency as if they had built it 

 themselves. They parade the streets, they 

 mix on equal terms with the inhabitants, 

 they clamber over the houses, they frequent 

 the shops, especially those of the pastry- 

 cooks and fruit-sellers, keeping their pro- 

 prietors constantly on the watch. 



Reverencing the monkey too much to 

 afford active resistance to his depredations, 

 the shopkeepers have recourse to passive 

 means, and by covering the roofs of their 

 shops with thorn-bushes, deprive the thiev- 

 ing deity of his chief point of vantage. 

 Let it not be matter of wonder that a 

 thief can be a god, for even the civilized 

 Romans acknowledged Mercury to be the 

 god of thieves, and they only borrowed their mythology from a much more ancient 

 source. Certainly the Hoonuman gives practical proof of his claims to be the repre- 

 sentative of such a deity ; for he possesses four hands with which to steal, and neglects 

 no opportunity of using them all. 



Conscious of the impropriety of its behavior, the monkey does not steal anything 

 while the proprietor is looking at it, but employs various subtle stratagems in order to 

 draw off the owner's attention while it filches his goods. Many ludicrous anecdotes of 

 such crafty tricks are known to every one who has visited India, and employed his eyes. 

 The banyan-tree is the favored habitation of these monkeys ; and among its many 

 branches they play strange antics, undisturbed by any foes excepting snakes. These 

 reptiles are greatly dreaded by the monkeys, and with good reason. However, it is said 

 that the monkeys kill many more snakes in proportion to their own loss, and do so with 

 a curiously refined cruelty. A snake may be coiled among the branches of the banyan, 

 fast asleep, when it is spied by a Hoonuman. After satisfying himself that the reptile 

 really is sleeping, the monkey steals upon it noiselessly, grasps it by the neck, tears it 

 from the branch, and hurries to the ground. He then runs to a flat stone, and begins to 

 grind down the reptile's head upon it, grinning and chattering with delight at the 

 writhings and useless struggles of the tortured snake, and occasionally inspecting his 

 work to see how it is progressing. When he has rubbed away the poor animal's jaws, 

 so as to deprive it of its poison-fangs, he holds great rejoicings over his helpless foe, 

 and tossing it to the young monkeys, looks complacently at its destruction. 



Besides the reverence in which this animal is held through its deification, it has other 

 claims to respect through the doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of 

 souls through the various forms of animal life. From the semblance of human form 

 which is borne by the monkeys, their frames were supposed to be the shrines of human 

 souls that had nearly reached perfection, and thereby made their habitations royal. 

 Therefore, to insult the Hoonuman is considered to be a crime equivalent to that of 

 insulting one of the royal family, while the murder of a monkey is high treason, and 

 punished by instant death. Many times enthusiastic naturalists, or thoughtless " griffs," 

 endangered their lives by wounding or killing one of these sacred beings. The report of 

 such a sacrilegious offence is enough to raise the whole population in arms against the 

 offender ; and those very men who study cruelty as a science, and will inflict the keenest 

 tortures on their fellow-beings without one feeling of compunction, who will leave an 



