LANGURS. 
79 
Sir Emerson Tennent, writing; of the typical purple-faced 
Mode of Life. J1 11 
monkey, which he terms the wanderu of the low country, says that it 
is far the commonest of the Sinhalese langurs, and that “ it is an active and intelli¬ 
gent creature, little larger than the common bonneted macaque, and far from 
being so mischievous as the other monkeys in the island. In captivity it is 
remarkable for the gravity of its demeanour, and for an air of melancholy in 
its expression and movements which are completely in character with its snowy 
beard and venerable aspect. In disposition it is gentle and confiding, sensible 
in the highest degree of kindness, and eager for endearing affection, uttering 
a low plaintive cry when its sympathies are excited. It is particularly cleanly 
in its habits when domesticated, and spends much of its time in trimming its 
fur, and carefully divesting its hair of particles of dust. Those which I kept at 
my house near Colombo were chiefly fed upon plantains and bananas, but for 
nothing did they exhibit a greater partiality than the rose-coloured flowers of 
the red hibiscus. These they devoured with unequivocal gusto; they likewise 
relished the leaves of many other trees, and even the bark of a few of the more 
succulent ones.” 
After referring to the white monkey, which he regards as merely a variety 
of the lowland wanderu, Sir Emerson Tennent proceeds with his account of the 
latter, and states that “ when observed in their native wilds, a party of twenty or 
thirty of these creatures is generally busily engaged in the search for berries and 
buds. They are seldom to be seen on the ground, except when they may have 
descended to recover seeds or fruit which have fallen at the foot of their favourite 
trees. When disturbed, their leaps are prodigious; but, generally speaking, their 
progress is made not so much by leaping as by swinging from branch to branch, 
using their powerful arms alternately; and, when baffled by distance, flinging 
themselves obliquely so as to catch the lower boughs of an opposite tree, the 
momentum caused by their descent being sufficient to cause a rebound of the branch, 
that carries them upward again till they grasp a higher and more distant one, and 
thus continue their headlong flight. In these perilous achievements wonder is 
excited less by the surpassing agility of these little creatures (frequently encumbered 
as they are by their young, which cling to them in their career) than by the quick¬ 
ness of their eye and the unerring accuracy with which they seem almost to 
calculate the angle at which a descent will enable them to cover a given distance, 
ainfl the recoil to attain a higher altitude.” 
The same writer then goes on to say that in the hills the typical black form 
of this monkey is replaced by the so-called bear monkey. “ The natives, who 
designate the latter as the Maha, or Great Wanderu, to distinguish it from the 
Ivala, or Black one (the typical purple-faced monkey), with which they are familiar, 
describe it as much wilder and more powerful than its congener of the lowland 
forests. It is rarely seen by Europeans, this portion of the country having till 
very recently been but partially opened; and even now it is difficult to observe its 
habits, as it seldom approaches the few roads which wind through these deep 
solitudes. At early morning, ere the day begins to dawn, its loud and peculiar 
howl, which consists of a quick repetition of the sounds how, how! may be frequently 
heard in the mountain jungles, and forms one of the characteristic noises of these 
