40 THE ORDEE OF 



removed from a state of nature, we find the remains of a mode 

 of life which was general at their origin. 



Modera, quoted by Mr. Crawfurd, relates that one day, three 

 naturalists, travelling on the northern coast of New Guinea for 

 scientific purposes, found the trees full of natives, of both 

 sexes, who leaped from branch to branch like monkeys, with 

 their weapons fastened on their backs, gesticulating, shouting, 

 and laughing.* This singular race, of which we have before 

 spoken, and which has been noticed in Hindoostan by many 

 eye-witnesses, seems to live half its time in trees. We have 

 the right to ask, if the confused remembrance of such a race 

 and such habits was not the origin of the tradition which 

 served as a foundation for the poem of Valmiki. Rama goes 

 to the rescue of his wife, Sita, who had been carried off by 

 the evil genius, Ravana ; he is assisted in this enterprise by a 

 valiant army of monkeys, and at every moment expressions 

 are used in the account which recall the monkey-like and 

 quadrumanous nature of the combatants f. In casting our 

 eyes over the first groups composing the mammalian series, 

 we find some apes who walk upon the sole of the feet and 

 upon the palm of the hand ; others, who walk upon the sole of 

 the foot and the joints of the folded hands, a very peculiar 

 method of progression, of a strange and unexpected nature, 

 and which alone would serve to characterise a group ; these 

 are the anthropomorphous apes : lastly, another mammal who 

 walks only on the soles of the feet, the form of the body and 

 legs rendering the anterior members quite unfit to be used in 

 walking ; this is man. 



The first apes of which we are going to speak, walking upon 

 the sole of the feet and the palms of their hands are, then, 

 unreservedly quadruped** In this particularity they resemble 

 other mammalia, among whom the pectoral, as well as the 

 abdominal, members are chiefly organs of locomotion; only 

 these apes also use their four extremities for another purpose, 



* Crawfurd, On the Negro Race, etc. (British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science, 1852, p. 86.) 



f See the translation of this veritable Iliad, by M. H. Fauohe. Rdmdyana, 

 1857. 



