BA KB ARY APE. 
15 
distant, to wait the event. When the apes ob~ 
serve no persons near the baskets, they soon descend 
in great numbers from the trees, and run towards 
them. They grin at each other for some time 
before they dare approach ; sometimes they ad- 
vance, then retreat, seeming much disinclined to 
encounter. At length the females, which are 
more courageous than the males, especially those 
that have young ones, (which they carry in their 
arms as women do their children) venture to ap- 
proach the baskets, and as they are about to 
thrust their heads in to eat, the males on the 
one side advance to hinder them. Immediately 
the other party comes forward, and the feud being 
kindled on both sides, the combatants seize the 
cudgels and commence a most severe fight, which 
always, ends with the weakest being driven into 
the woods with broken heads and limbs. The 
victors, he tells us, then fall to in peace, and 
devour the reward of their labour. 
He also informs us, that a-s he was himself tra- 
velling in the East Indies, in company with the 
English president, a great number of large ape*, 
were observed upon the trees around them. The 
president was so much amused, that he ordered 
his carriage to stop, and desired Tavernier to shoot 
one of them. The attendants, who were prin- 
cipally natives, and well acquainted with the 
manners of these animals, begged him to desist 
lest those that escaped might do them some injury 
in revenge for the death of a companion. Being, 
however, still requested, he killed a female, which 
fell among the branches, letting her little ones, 
that clung to her neck, fall to the ground. In 
an instant all the remaining apes, to the number 
of sixty or upwards, descended in fury, and, as 
many as could leaped upon the president’s coach, 
where they would soon have strangled him, had 
