MANGOES AND MONKEYS 63 



the most luscious of all Indian fruits and almost 

 the most abundant, with the exception of the 

 homely plantain, which, like the poor, is always 

 with us. It comes in the hottest month of the 

 year, as if to compensate us through the palate for 

 the miseries inflicted on the skin ; prickly heat, and 

 such-like. With our nine trees, we sometimes have 

 a very large crop ; not so this year ; the bloom was 

 excessive in February, but high winds last month 

 blew off a great deal of the tiny fruit just forming. 

 Then they have other enemies; squirrels, crows, 

 and monkeys. Two of the latter, a pair of great 

 brown Langours, living about in the jungle, come 

 every day along the garden wall, swinging them- 

 selves up into the topmost branches of the best 

 mango tree, where they sit defying everybody, and 

 breaking off the choicest fruit and eating it before 

 our eyes. The dogs nearly choke themselves with 

 wrath, and so do we, standing underneath. Jogee 

 and Poonia and their men hurl stones and abuse at 

 them, none of which affects them in the least. The 

 largest one is about 5 feet high, if standing straight 

 upright, and he sat there in the tree last week, 

 calmly munching his mangoes and throwing us 



