The mother’s love shows itself
by the great care with which every old one handles her young, through
laying them on the breast, by watching them, by searching their fur,
and by the attacks on others who come near. The motions of the young
one were neither light nor graceful, but awkward and ungainly. Another
time Rengger came upon a family who were about to make an attack upon
a maize-field. They climbed softly down from a tree, looked carefully
around, broke two or three heads of fruit off, and returned as quickly
as possible to the wood, there to devour their booty. As Rengger showed
himself the whole troop fled, with shrill cries, through the tree-tops.
Every one, however, took at least a head of fruit away with him.
Rengger now shot one of these, and saw a female fall with her young one
through the branches. He thought he should be able to catch her soon,
but, though dying, she caught herself by her tail, and kept him waiting
for quite a quarter of an hour. The young one had not left its mother,
but rather clung faster to her, though showing signs of fear. After she
was dead, and it was taken away, the little thing called in plaintive
tones to its mother, and crept near to her as soon as it was let loose.
After some hours, however, the coldness of the body seemed to frighten
the young one, and it willingly stayed in its captor’s breast pocket.
Our informant says that in the family of the Cai, the number of females
exceeds the number of males. In January the female gives birth to a
young one, and keeps it at her breast for the first week, but later on
carries it on her back. The mother never leaves her young, not even
when she is wounded. Rengger, however, observed that a female, whose
arm had been broken by a bullet, tore her young one from her breast,
and set it on a branch; but this most likely was to shield the young
one from danger rather than to relieve herself of its weight.
“The young Cai is often caught, and tamed. When older they cannot
bear restraint; they become mopish, refuse their food, never grow
tame, and die in a few weeks. The young one, on the other hand, soon
forgets its freedom, becomes attached to people, and partakes, as do
many other Monkeys, of their food and drink. They walk on their hind
legs for three or four steps, but they are trained to walk upright by
tying the hands behind the back. At first they fall frequently, and
must therefore be held by a cord from behind. When sleeping they curl
themselves up, and cover the face with the arms and tail. They sleep in
the night, and when it is very hot, in the middle of the day. At other
times they are in constant motion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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