APES AND MONKEYS. 287 



they are as fond of warmth as they are of abundant and varied diet. 

 Something to bite and crack there must be if they are to remain 

 permanently or for any length of time in a place; failing that, they 

 shift their quarters. Woods in the neighbourhood of human settle- 

 ments are to them a paradise; the forbidden tree therein troubles 

 them not at all. Maize and sugar-cane fields, orchards, banana, 

 plantain, and melon plantations they regard as their rightful and 

 peculiar feeding-grounds, and districts where they are protected by 

 the piety of the inhabitants they also consider very agreeable places 

 of abode. 



All monkeys, with perhaps the exception of the so-called anthro- 

 poid apes, live in bands of considerable strength under the leadership 

 of an old male. The occupant of this post of dignity rises to it by 

 recognized all-round ability; the strongest arms and longest teeth 

 decide the matter. While among those mammals which are led by 

 a female member of the herd the rest obey willingly, the monkey- 

 leader is an absolute despot of the worst type, who compels his 

 subjects to unconditional obedience. If anyone refuses submission, 

 he is brought to a sense of his duty by bites, pinchings, and blows. 

 The monkey-leader requires the most slavish submission from all 

 the monkeys of his herd, females as well as males. He shows no 

 chivalry towards the weaker sex — '' In Sturm erringt er der Minne 

 Sold". 



His discipline is strict, his will unbending. No young monkey 

 dare presume to make love to one of the females of his herd; no 

 female may venture to show favour to any male except himself. 

 He rules despotically over his harem, and his seed, like that of 

 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, is like the sand of the sea-shore for 

 multitude. If the herd becomes too large, a troop separates itself, 

 under the leadership of a full-grown male, to form a new community. 

 Till then the leader is obeyed by all, and is as much honoured as 

 feared. Old experienced mothers, as well as young scarcely grown- 

 up females, strive to flatter him; exerting themselves especially to 

 show him continually that highest favour one monkey can render 

 to another — cleansing his hairy coat from all things not appertaining 

 thereto. He, on his part, accepts such homage with the demeanour 



