Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/250

236 value, and in trying to illustrate the life of that pretended cousin of ours.

The apes have established their homes in every continent, Australia excepted. Warmth seems to he one of the principal conditions of their existence, as they are only found in the warmer regions. In America they are spread from 26° south to Mexico; in Asia, from the Sunda Islands to the Japanese Sea. In Europe there exists hut one species of monkeys, and its members live all together in one troop on the rocks of the fort of Gibraltar, under the special care and protection of the garrison. That troop numbered in all twenty-three individuals when I visited Gibraltar in 1881.

The principal thing the monkeys claim from a country, whose clime they are enjoying otherwise, is food, plenty of varied food; and this fact fully explains the predilection they have always shown for places where pious superstition provides for their wants and makes their life comfortable.

Among other mammifers the female element wields the scepter in family life, but in the realm of apes the male is invested with the sovereign power, not by general suffrage, but by the right of force. The oldest and strongest male of a troop proclaims himself chief and leader, after having vanquished all his competitors, viz., the rest of the senior males. The longest teeth and the strongest arms decide in the question of supremacy. All those who show some reluctance to submit are chastised till they come to political reason. To the strongest belongs the crown; in his sharp teeth resides his wisdom.

This ferocious tyrant understands his duty as a leader, and performs the same with dignity. His subordinates flatter and fondle him in every way; the ladies of his harem rival in keeping his dress clean from annoying parasites. As a genuine pasha, he accepts this respect with a kind of languid acquiescence. In return, he watches carefully over his vassals, and shows a continual anxiety for their welfare and security. He orders and directs minute details in daily life, and subdues all opposition—for there exists a Left also in the monkey state—by striking and sharp bodily argumentation. As a general rule, the monkeys go early to bed, rise late, and establish their night encampment on the summit of rocks, if possible'. The first thing they do in the morning is to warm themselves, for which purpose they climb to the tops of rocks and trees and turn slowly around in the sun till their hair, wetted by the nightly dew, is entirely dry. This preliminary operation is followed by a thorough cleansing of the skin, and, immediately after, by breakfast. Every eatable thing suits monkeys—fruits, onions, roots, seeds, nuts, leaves, insects, eggs, young birds, snails—and they enjoy generally a copious, free board. Their notions concerning property are very defective. "We plant and the apes harvest," says the Arab of Eastern Soudan, with his natural apathy in the presence of facts and events that he can not prevent. Does not the monkey show in