1 56 THE MONKE Y FA MIL Y. 



the year throughout, in the tropics and in the forests bordering on 

 them. This I will show in the sequel. 



Proceeding onwards with our author's history of the monkey family, 

 I find his account of the orang-outang anything but true and satis- 

 factory. It seems to have been made up partly from what has been 

 observed of the animal when in a state of captivity, and partly from 

 the reports of travellers. Such reports, nine times out of ten, con- 

 tain a strong infusion of the marvellous ; and they ought to be re- 

 ceived with caution, and be sifted most diligently, by those naturalists 

 whose delicate state of health or domestic arrangements prevent them 

 from visiting the countries where monkeys abound. He quotes, but 

 seems to condemn at the same time, a great northern master in 

 zoology, who, upon the reports of certain voyagers, tells us that the 

 " orang-outang is not deprived of this faculty (speech), and that it 

 expresses itself by a kind of hissing words." But our author himself 

 doubts that there is such an animal of " hissing words;" nay, he 

 even denies its existence, and he conjectures that it might possibly 

 have been a white negro, or what is usually styled a chacrelas. 

 This animal could not possibly have been a white negro, be- 

 cause a white negro is a human being to all intents and purposes, 

 and he has no need to express himself by a kind of " hissing 

 words." 



By the way, a white negro is a rare phenomenon : still it differs 

 from its sable fellow Africans in nothing but in colour. Once, and 

 only once, during my life, I have had an opportunity of examining 

 minutely an entirely white negro. In the year 1812 there lived in 

 the town of Stabroek, the capital of Demerara, a man of this com- 

 plexion. He was a robust young fellow by no means what they 

 called an Albino, as his eyes were just of the same colour as those 

 of his tribe. Having been shown the house where he lived, I knocked 

 at the door and begged admittance. On addressing him, I said that, 

 having heard much of his fair skin, I had come that morning to make 

 acquaintance with him. He went by the name of Bochra Jem, or 

 White Jemmy, was a tailor by trade, and was the property of the 

 good woman who had opened me the door. He answered without 

 hesitation every question which I put to him, and he willingly al- 

 lowed me to examine him for any length of time. His whole frame 



