80 



FOUR-HANDED FOLK. 



Unlike most of the monkey tribe, he would 

 look one squarely in the eye, and not flinch. 

 On the hands the fingers were long and slim, 

 but there was no opposable thumb, while on the 

 feet — as we naturally called the hinder pair of 

 hands — there was a decided thumb. All his 

 fingers had claws and not nails. 



This funny tenant of my mantel never washed 

 face or hands, and paid no attention to his coat, 

 with one exception, — his tail. This apparently 

 useless appendage, twice as long as he was, 

 which usually hung straight down, or stood 

 straight out, gave him much concern, and was 

 evidently the one point on which he prided him- 

 self. To dress it, he brought it up before him, 

 held it with one hand and combed it violently 

 with the claws of the other, — the wrong way of 

 the fur. When he got too far up in his opera- 

 tions to reach while sitting (for the tail tow- 

 ered above his head like a flagpole), he rose to 

 his feet, and stretched up in a ludicrous way. 

 It never seemed to occur to him to draw the 

 prim tail down. In fact he acted as if it be- 

 longed to somebody else. He often sat and 

 held it up before his face, contemplating it with 

 an air of grave interest and curiosity, as who 

 should say " What is this that I see before me?" 



In fright, the beautiful silky hair of his head 

 rose so much as to change his expression, while 



