Chap. II. 
of the 
AST 
N D I E S. 
thefe Creatures of all Colours, and almoft of all Shades of 
Colours, black as well as white, red as well as grey, and 
fome that with red Bodies have their Heads and Faces of 
a fine Sky-blue ; and thefe laft fort are much of the Size 
of our common Dogs. In fome Places there are fuch 
Numbers of them, that they cover the Tops of the Houfes, 
and by throwing Things down hinder People from going 
along the Street others from a like Spirit of Mifchief poll 
themfelves in hollow Ways, where they almoft murder 
fuch as pafs by, throwing down broken Rocks and Stones f . 
The ancient Indians , as they had an Averfion to Ipilling 
Blood, found a Way to make thefe Creatures, which are 
by Nature adtive, not only quiet, but ufeful. In fuch 
Places as produced Pepper and Cacao-trees, they were 
wont, in the Sight of the Monkeys, to cut the higheft 
i Branches within their Reach, and lay them regularly on 
i the Ground. This they did in a Morning, and then leav- 
! ing the Place, thefe natural Mimicks pulled ail the Fruit 
: that was out of Man’s Reach, and laid it in the fame 
I Order upon the Ground, where the Indians coming in the 
i Night, found their Harveft gathered to their Hands, and 
, carried it away. When their Numbers made them excef- 
fively troublefome, the Indians , as Strabo and Diodorus 
Siculus inform us, turned this imitating Faculty upon 
; them to their own Deftrudtion, for coming to their Haunts 
with Bafins full of Water, or of Honey, they walked their 
! Faces in the Sight of thefe Animals, and then fubftituting 
Pots of thin Glew inftead of the Water or Honey, retired 
out of Sight. The Monkeys, as foon as they were gone, 
came down and walked their Faces likewife, and flicking 
their Eyes together, became blind, and were ealily taken. 
In other Places they brought Boots into the Woods, and 
putting them on and off, left them well lined with Glue, 
ior a fort of Bird-lime, fo that when the Monkeys put them 
on, they ftuck fall, and hindered them from making their 
Efcape. A third Method they invented of taking them 
was. by the Help of Springs at the Back of Looking-glaffes, 
i which when the Monkeys came to handle, as they had 
feen the Men do before, held them fall, and difabled them 
From making a Retreat ; but the moll dangerous of their 
Enemies was the Lion, for fading their Flelh equally 
pleafant and wholelome, he purfued them with greater 
'Eagernels than any other fort of Beafts s. 
It is a very fingular Paffage that Strabo relates of their giv- 
ing an Alarm to the Army of Alexander the Great. Every 
■body knows that the Macedonians -were diftinguifhed by the 
^Severity of their Difcipline, and the exa< 5 l Order in which 
they marched •, it happened, that in paffing through that Part 
of India , which lies between the Rivers Indus and Ganges , 
they travers’d a Wood, and paffed on the Edge of a 
[Mountain, which ferved thefe Creatures for a Retreat, and 
encamped in their Neighbourhood all Night. The next 
[Morning, when the Army began to move, they faw at a 
tDiftance many thoulands of thefe Creatures drawn up in 
i Batalia, and not doubting but that it was the Army of their 
Enemies, the Trumpets founded, and Alexander himfelf 
: began to prepare for an Engagement-, but the Indian 
Prince Taxiles , who was then with Alexander , foon in- 
formed him of his Miftake, and affured him that upon his 
advancing thefe Creatures would again betake themfelves 
to their Woods and Mountains, as in Effeft they did h . 
The moft remarkable Property of thefe Animals is their 
Attachment to each other, and living in a kind of Society, 
of which the Ancients took great Notice ; and as to the 
Truth of the Fa< 5 t, a fingle Inftance from a modern Tra- 
veller of great Reputation may fuffice. The famous Mon- 
fieur Tavernier tells us, that returning from Agra with the 
Engii/h Prefident to Surat , they paffed within four or five 
Leagues of Amenabad , through a little Foreft of Mangoes. 
^ W e faw there, fays he, a vaft Number of very large 
‘‘ Apes, both Male and Female, many of the latter having 
their i'oung in their Arms. We were each of us in our 
[* Loaches, and the Englijh Prefident flopped his to tell 
a very fine new Gun, and knowing that 
I was a good Markfman, defined me to try it by fhoot- 
ing one or the Apes. One of my Servants, who was a 
“ Native of the Country, made a Sign to me not to do it, 
“ and I did all that lay in my Power to diffuade the Gen- 
“ tleman from his Defign 5 but to no Purpofe, for he im- 
“ mediately levelled his Piece and fhot a She- Ape, which 
“ fell through the Brandies of the Tree on which Ihe was 
“ fitting, her young ones tumbling at the fame time out 
“ of her Arms upon the Ground. We prefently faw that 
“ happen which my Servant apprehended, for all the Apes, 
“ to the Number of fixty, came immediately down from 
“ the Trees and attacked the Prefident’s Coach, with fuch 
Ci Fury, that they muft have infallibly deftroyed him, if 
“ ah who were prefent had not flown to his Relief, and by 
4S drawing up the Windows, and polling all the Servants 
“ about the Coach, protected him from their Refentment. I 
“ mull confefs I was not a little afraid, though they did not 
“ offer to meddle with me, becaufe they were very large, and 
<e of incredible Strength, and their Fury was fo great, that 
“ they purfued the Prefident’s Coach for near threeLeagues 1 .’* 
It is very natural to fuppofe, that from the Sight 
of the larger fort of thefe Creatures the Ancients were 
confirmed in their Notions of Fawns, Satyrs, and wild 
Men ; and if I might prefume to fpeak my own Opinion 
freely, as to the Attendants of Bacchus, as they appear 
on the Coins, Gems, and Bafs-Reliefs of the Ancients^ 
I fliould fay that thefe were no more than fo many 
different forts of Apes thus reprefented to fignify his Con- 
quell of thefe Countries. I would not be underftood to affert, 
that the Ancients confidered them in this Light, the con- 
trary of which is very certain ; but what I mean is, that their 
Fables altered and diftorted the original Fad, and occafioned 
frequent Changes in the Figures to make them fuit the 
better with the Stories they invented, whereas originally the 
Chariot drawn by Leopards, and followed by thefe Inha- 
bitants of the Woods, was a very natural Picfture of the 
Conqueror of the Indies. I might enlarge confiderably 
on this Topick, and Ihew from a Variety of Authors, that 
in truth all the Satyrs and wild Men mentioned by old Wri- 
ters, were no other than Apes and Baboons of an over- 
grown Size ; and this might be likewife confirmed by com- 
paring the Accounts given by thofe Writers, with the Re- 
lations of modern Travellers ; but as this would take up a 
great deal of Room, and as I have Reafon to believe that 
the Notion is in itfelf fo plain and fo agreeable to Truth, 
that it does not Hand in Need of any Arguments to fup- 
port it, I lhall not profecute it farther at this Time, the 
rather, becaufe this Chapter begins already to grow very 
long, and I have Hill fome remarkable Creatures that before 
I finilh it I find it neceffary to mention. 
20. Among the other Wonders of the Indies , it is a little 
ftrange, that the Animal, which produces Mulk, was fo 
long before it was known to the Ancients ; for Pliny, the 
moft curious and the moft diligent Collector among their 
Writers, has left us nothing that feems to have the leaft 
Relation to this SubjeCt, the firft Notice of which we re- 
ceived from Arnobius and Apuleius. Yet this Perfume was 
always in very great Efteem in the Indies , and when properly 
tempered, muft be acknowledged the richeft of its kind. 
It is taken from an Animal called the Mofch or Mufk, 
which is very common throughout all China and the Indies 
and is about the Size of a Fawn, or rather a little lefs ; this 
Creature is faid to be fo lazy, that the Hunters are hardly 
able to make it ftir, but are obliged to difcover its Haunts, 
which once done, they kill it without the leaft Refiftance. 
When this is done, they cut off a little Excrefcence cover’d 
with Down, which grows near its Navel, from whence 
they take a kind of Blood, or rather Juice, clotted, of a moft 
odoriferous Smell •, and then they Ikin and cut it to Pieces. 
But befides this Liquor, which is a kind of Effence 
of Mufk, there are three other Methods of making 
this valuable Commodity, though not in the fame Degree 
of Perfection. The firft is, by taking the Hind Quarters 
of the Animal from its Kidneys, and fteeping them in its 
Blood •, they are then bruifed and beat in a Mortar into a 
fort of Pap, which is dried and put up in little Purfes 
made of that Animals Skin 1 . When it is propofed to 
make a greater Quantity of Mulk, though not quite fo 
Fears ' ° JagSS IfelSV'i 7 ' vw 2 ,°r - In * e Duke de Bourbon's Menegerie there was one of thefe blue-faced Apes Jhewn for mj 
1 Strabo ubiJra ’ t /t ^ ^ ha \ t A ”™ al ‘ lib -™- H- Hijt. Nat lib. viii. 2I . Philojlrat. lib.m. c. 
Nu m b XXXIII ^ ^ ' n lS> * ‘ l ' C ‘ - MandeJlo,p. 81. Le Brm.'p. 121. 1 Difitianaire de Commerce, Tym. iii.^.146; 
X 6 E ri 
