Meer Hassan Ali, B.: Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: descriptive of their manners, customs, habits, and religious opinions ; made during a twelve years residence in their immediate Society (Band 2) (London, 1832)

220 MONKEYS.

LETTER XXII.

Monkeys.—Hindoo opinions of their Nature.—Instances of
their sagacity.—Rooted animosity of the Monkey tribe
to the snake.—Cruelty to each other when maimed.—
The female remarkable for affection to its young.-—•
Anecdotes descriptive of the belief of the Natives in the
Monkey being endowed with reason.—The Monkeys and
the Alligator.—The Traveller and the Monkeys.—The
Hindoo and the Monkey.

The Natives of India, more particularly the
Hindoos, are accustomed to pay particular at-
tention to the habits of the varied monkey race,
conceiving them to be connecting links in the
order of Nature between brutes and rational
creatures; or, as some imagine and assert,
(without any other foundation than conjecture
and fancy), that they were originally a race
of human beings, who for their wicked deeds