When the action of the foot is not paralysed by the size of the shoe, which is elsewhere the exception, it is pre-eminently adapted for laying hold of anything. And if certain kinds of men seem to us very fit for the kind of existence led by the Quadrumana,--if they seem to us constituted in order to live in trees, there is nothing there which ought to surprise us, nothing but what is quite natural and quite consistent. It has been truly said, that man is _frugivorous_. All the details of his intestinal canal, and above all, his dentition, prove it in the most decided manner. He ought, therefore, from his origin, to have all his organism modified in harmony with this alimentation. Like the apes, he ought to possess such means of locomotion as would enable him to procure the food specially adapted to his wants. And therefore, what is there astonishing in the fact that among certain races, which are scarcely removed from a state of nature, we find the remains of a mode of life which was general at their origin. Modera, quoted by Mr. Crawfurd, relates that one day, three naturalists, travelling on the northern coast of New Guinea for scientific purposes, found the trees full of natives, of both sexes, who leaped from branch to branch like monkeys, with their weapons fastened on their backs, gesticulating, shouting, and laughing.[102] This singular race, of which we have before spoken, and which has been noticed in Hindoostan by many eye-witnesses, seems to live half its time in trees. We have the right to ask, if the confused remembrance of such a race and such habits was not the origin of the tradition which served as a foundation for the poem of Valmîki. Rama goes to the rescue of his wife, Sita, who had been carried off by the evil genius, Râvana; he is assisted in this enterprise by a valiant army of monkeys, and at every moment expressions are used in the account which recall the monkey-like and quadrumanous nature of the combatants[103]. In casting our eyes over the first groups composing the mammalian series, we find some apes who walk upon the sole of the feet and upon the palm of the hand; others, who walk upon the sole of the foot and the joints of the folded hands,--a very peculiar method of progression,--of a strange and unexpected nature, and which alone would serve to characterise a group; these are the anthropomorphous apes: lastly, another mammal who walks only on the soles of the feet, the form of the body and legs rendering the anterior members quite unfit to be used in walking; this is man.