The regard of the natives for them was, and probably is still, sincere, and their boldness--the result of immunity from persecution--was discovered very early in the English occupation of India; for Tavernier tells a story of an English “President,” who asked him to shoot some Monkeys, which were amusingly audacious by the river side. He complied, and a female fell dead with her young clinging to her. This so enraged the Monkeys that sixty of them descended at once, and had it not been for the serving-men, and the carriage being shut up, they would have strangled the “President.” They followed the carriage for many miles. Then we are told about Indian princes spending fortunes on the marriage-feasts of Apes; and of cultivators of the soil being scared away and subjected to all sorts of rapine by these holy creatures. All this goes to prove that generations of Hindoos have believed in the sacred character of the Monkey, and have placed him in their mythology. So Fred. Cuvier, when he wanted a name, termed them Sacred Apes, or _Semnoptheci_. They have been called Slow Apes, but this is quite a misnomer, for when awake, and not tired, they are as full of fun, activity, and play, but not as full of malice, as the others. Wallace, in his charming book of travels in the great Islands of Sumatra and Borneo, thus noticed how full of life they are:--“In Sumatra, Monkeys are very abundant, and at Lubo Raman they used to frequent the trees which overhang the guard-house, and gave me a fine opportunity of observing their gambols. Two species of Semnopithecus were most plentiful--Monkeys of a slender form, with very long tails. Not being much shot at, they are rather bold, and remain quite unconcerned when natives alone are present; but when I came out to look at them, they would stare for a minute or two, and then make off. They take tremendous leaps from the branches of one tree to those of another a little lower. It is very amusing when one strong leader takes a bold jump, to see the others following with more or less trepidation; and it often happens that one or two of the last seem quite unable to make up their minds to leap till the rest are disappearing, when, as if in desperation at being left behind, they would leap as far as they could, and often come crashing down into the underwood.”