VII MONKEYS— AFFINITIES AND DISTRIBUTION 149 



Another striking difference between monkej^s and men 

 is that the former never walk with ease in an erect 

 posture, but ahnost always use their arms in climbing or 

 in walking on all-fours like most quadrupeds. The 

 monkeys that we see in the streets dressed up and walk- 

 ing erect, only do so after much drilling and teaching, 

 just as dogs may be taught to walk in the same way; 

 and the posture is almost as unnatural to the one animal 

 as it is to the other. The largest and most man-like of 

 the apes — the gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang-utan — also 

 walk usually on all- fours ; but in these the arms are so 

 long and the legs so short that the body appears half 

 erect when walking ; and they have the habit of resting 

 on the knuckles of the hands, not on the palms like the 

 smaller monkeys whose arms and legs are more nearly 

 of an equal length, which tends still further to give them 

 a semi-erect position. Yet they are never known to 

 walk of their own accord on their hind legs only, though 

 they can do so for short distances, and the story of their 

 using a stick and walking erect by its help in the wild 

 state is not true. Monkeys, then, are both four-handed 

 and four-footed beasts; they possess four hands formed 

 very much like our hands, and capable of picking up or 

 holding any small object in the same manner ; but they 

 are also four-footed, because they use all four limbs for 

 the purpose of walking, running, or climbing ; and, being 

 adapted to this double purpose, the hands want the 

 delicacy of touch and the freedom as well as the precision 

 of movement which ours possess. Man alone is so con- 

 structed that he walks erect with perfect ease, and has 

 his hands free for any use to which he wishes to apply 

 them ; and this is the great and essential bodily distinc- 

 tion between monkeys and men. 



We will now give some account of the different kinds of 

 monkeys and the countries they inhabit. 



The Different Kinds of Monkeys and the Couiitries they 

 inhabit. 



Monkeys are usually divided into three kinds — apes, 

 monkeys, and baboons; but these do not include the 



