Zhc U^cs> anb /iBonkeige. 



FIRST ORDER: Pitheci. 



AGLER calls the 

 Apes trans- 

 formed Men, 

 thereby but giving 

 utterance to the opinion 

 of all nations, ancient as 

 well as modern, which 

 have had anything to do 

 with these strange creatures. 

 Pretty nearly the reverse of 

 his words would correspond to 

 the scientific opinion of to-day ; 

 which is that it is not the Apes 

 that are transformed Men, but that 

 the latter are more perfectly devel^ 

 oped cousins of the former. 

 The Egyptians and Hindoos seem 

 to have been the only people among 

 the ancients who exhibited any affection 

 for this animal. The old Egyptians chis- 

 eled the likeness of the Ape in indestructi- 

 ble porphyry and modeled the images of their 

 gods in its similitude, and the ancient Hindoos 

 inaugurated the practice, which their descendants 

 ' still follow, of building houses and temples for the 

 Monkeys. Solomon imported Monkeys from 

 Ophir, and the Romans kept them as pets, dissected 

 them in anatomical studies, and matched them against 

 wild beasts, but never established very friendly relations 

 with them, and, like Solomon, never thought them to 

 "be anything else than animals. The Arabians go a little 

 further : they think them Men who, for their sins, have been 

 condemned by Allah to bear the form of Apes, their outward 

 appearance seeming to them to be a curious blending of devil 

 and Man. 



Our own manner of thinking is not very different from that of 

 the Arabians. Instead of recognizing them as our next of kin we 

 only see in them caricatures of ourselves, and condemn them without 

 mercy, finding only those kinds attractive that show the least likeness 

 to a human being, while those in which the likeness is more distinct 

 excite our disgust. Our aversion to the Apes is based as well on their 

 physical as their mental traits. They resemble Men both too much and too 

 little. While the human body shows perfect harmony, that of the Ape often 

 seems a repulsive caricature. A single look at the skeletons of a Man and 

 an Ape shows us the difference in their respective structures, though this 

 difference is only conditional. At any rate it is wrong to term the Apes ill- 

 shaped, as people usually do. There are beautiful Apes, and there are very ugly 

 ones ; the same is true of Men, for an Eskimo, a Bushman or a native of New Holland 

 is by no means a model for a statue of Apollo. Apes taken by themselves are very well 

 endowed animals ; it is only when compared with the highest developed Men that they appear to be 

 caricatures of the superior being. 



The size of the Apes differs within rather wide boundaries, the Gorilla being as large as a well-grown 



