688 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



tions in the fields. Young chacmas are often kept as domestic animals, performing 

 the offices of a mastiff, whom they greatly surpass in strength. Thus they immedi- 

 ately announce by their growling the approach of a stranger, and are even employed 

 for a variety of useful purposes which no dog would be able to perform. Here one is 

 trained to blow the bellows of a smith ; there another to guide a team of oxen. When 

 a stream is to be crossed, the chacma immediately jumps upon the back of one of the 

 oxen, and remains sitting till he has no longer to fear the wet, which he loves as little 

 as the cat. 



In Abyssinia, Nubia, and South Arabia we find the Derryas (O. hamadryas), 

 which enjoyed divine honors among the ancient Egyptians. The general color of the 

 hair is a mixture of light-gray and cinnamon, and in the male that of the head and 

 neck forms a long mane, falling back over the shoulders. The face is extremely long, 

 naked, and of a dirty flesh-color. This ugly monkey was revered as the symbol of 

 Thoth, the divine father of literature and the judge of man after death. Formerly 

 temples were erected to his honor, and numerous priests ministered to his wants ; but 

 now, by a sad change of baboon fortune, he is shot without ceremony, and his skin 

 pulled over his ears to be stuffed and exhibited in profane museums. 



In the forests of tropical Africa and Asia we find a remarkable group of animals, 

 which, though quadrumanous like the monkeys, essentially differs from them by pos- 

 sessing long curved claws on the index, or also on the middle finger of the hinder 

 extremities ; by a sharp, projecting muzzle, and by a different dentition. The Loris, 

 remarkable for the slowness of their gait and their large glaring eyes, are exclusively 

 natives of the East Indies; the Galagos, which unite the organization of the monkeys 

 with the graceful sprightliness of the squirrels, are solely confined to Africa, where 

 they are chiefly found in' the gum-forests of Senegal ; the Tarsii, thus named from 

 their elongated tarsii, giving to their hinder limbs a disproportionate length, are re- 

 stricted to part of the Indian archipelago ; but the large island of Madagascar, where, 

 strange to say, not a single monkey is found, is the chief seat of the family, being the 

 exclusive dwelling-place of the short-tailed In dri, (whom, from his black, thick fur and 

 anthropomorphous shape, one would be inclined to reckon among the gibbons), and of 

 the long-tailed Lemurs or Makis. All these gentle and harmless animals are arboreal 

 in their habits, avoid the glaring light of day under the dense covert of the forest, and 

 awaken to a more active existence as soon as night descends upon the earth. Then 

 the loris, who during the day have slept clinging to a branch, prowl among the forest 

 boughs in quest of food. Nothing can escape the scrutiny of their large, glaring eyes; 

 and when they have marked their victim, they cautiously and noiselessly approach till 

 it is within their grasp. The Galagos have at night all the activity of birds, hopping 

 from bough to bough on their hind limbs only. They watch the insects flitting among 

 the leaves, listen to the fluttering of the moth as it darts through the air, lie in wait for 

 it, and spring with the rapidity of an arrow, seldom missing their prize, which is caught 

 by the hands. They make nests in the branches of trees, and cover a bed with grass 

 and leaves for their little ones. The tarsii leap about two feet at a spring, and feed 

 chiefly on lizards, holding their prey in their fore-hands, while they rest on their 

 haunches. 



The monkeys of the New World difi'er still more widely from those of the Old than 

 the copper-colored Indian from the woolly negro. One sees at once on comparing 



