THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
pouches, characterizing many foreign species. These distinctions have ex- 
isted forever, apparently, “since no fossil remains of monkeys at all inter- 
mediate have so far been discovered”; and this is another evidence of the 
very early time at which South America became isolated, as shown by the 
singularities of its fauna. The Old World catarrhines are the superior 
in organization, and must receive first notice. 
All the Old World monkeys, apart from the anthropoid apes, 
belong to a single family, Cercopithecide, divisible into two 
sections: (1) small, agile, long-tailed forms (Semnopithecines) 
without cheek pouches; and (2) larger, short-tailed forms 
(Cercopithecines) with cheek pouches. 
The semnopithecines seem to have the higher organization, 
as is shown especially by the complicated stomach, in the first 
chamber cf which may be stowed a large amount of the leaves 
that constitute the bulk of their food, to be slowly passed on 
to the truly digestive sac. These monkeys may therefore 
pick and swallow the materials for a meal with great rapidity, 
and then go to some safer place for its slow digestion, thus 
keeping out of danger a much larger part of the time than if 
they had to eat long and slowly; nor do they need the pouches 
in their cheeks which the other group uses for a similar econ- 
omy of time and risk. All dwell in trees, and the group in- 
cludes the small African guerezas and the Asiatic langurs, — 
the latter best known by the sacred monkey, or 
Ventelle of India, venerated by the Hindoos because 
it represented Hanuman, the Monkey-god who assisted Rama, 
one of the mythic heroes. Hence no faithful Brahmin Hindoo 
will harm one (though delighted to see another man drive them 
away or even kill them), and they come fearlessly about vil- 
lages, raiding gardens and orchards, and pilfering from shops 
and food stores, making themselves where numerous a great 
nuisance. The pious have thrown a similar protection over 
other species, so that in some parts of India all monkeys are 
safe from molestation, and become intolerable. J. L. Kip- 
24 
Langurs. 
