A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of IndiaAcland, Charles
History
A Popular Account of the Manners and Customs of India
Acland, Charles
India -- Description and travel; India -- Social life and customs
After breakfast, we were very much interested in watching the
monkeys. The tope swarmed with a grey species, some of which appeared
almost as large as men. They are peculiarly sacred in the eyes of the
Hindus, who imagine that one of their gods once assumed a similar
form. They are called Hunnamuns, which was the name of that deity.
My wife and I stood at the door of the tent watching them for hours;
they do not appear to be afraid of men. Many of the females had young
ones with them, and they came and sat down close to us with their
little ones in their laps. First they would suckle them, then they
would hush them to sleep, or turn them over and over, pulling off
all the dirt that adhered to their skins, and making them clean and
comfortable.
A little farther off you would see four or five males picking the
fruit off a low bush, and chattering to one another all the time.
Then a half-grown one would jump down, and give a hard pull at an old
one's tail, for which he generally received a good box on the ear,
unless he was nimble enough to get out of the way in time; presently
one of the old fellows would get angry, and spring into the tree
after his little tormentor, and a regular chase would ensue. The
leaps they take are tremendous; they will often spring from the top
of a lofty tree into the middle of the next without falling.
I saw one of the females shot; it was a cruel sight, and struck all
the natives with horror. They refused to touch the dead body. The
ball did not kill her instantly, and she cried piteously, whilst
she pressed her little one to her bosom, and tried to get into the
tree. To the last she would not relinquish her young one, and died in
endeavouring to save it. I could not shoot a monkey, their actions
and their cries are so like human beings. I know of a case in which
an officer shot one, and the whole herd instantly sprang from the
trees and attacked him; it was with difficulty he was saved. They are
most interesting creatures.
[Sidenote: CROW-PHEASANT.]
In the evening I went out with my gun, accompanied by Captain R. I
got nothing, however, but some doves and some crow-pheasants; the
latter are not eaten by Europeans, though much relished by the
low-caste natives. It is a bird, as the name signifies, between a
crow and a pheasant. The colour is black, tinged with a deep dull
red. It has a long tail, and runs like a pheasant; but I believe that
its food is the same as a crow's, that is, carrion and animal food.
[Sidenote: GAME.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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