KRAO, THE "HUMAN MONKEY"

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3642, 15 March 1883, Page 4

KRAO, THE "HUMAN MONKEY"

(Nature.), Through, tlio courtesy of Mr rarini, I have bad a private mtonloAv with this curious little waif, -which he is new cxhic biting- at the llcyal Aquarium, Westminster, and for Avhieh he claims the c i: stinction of being the long-sought-for "missing link" k-tfl-cen liwu and" the Anthvopoid upes. Krao certainly presents .some abnormal peculiarities, but they arc scarcely of a Buflicieutly pronounced typo to jiistify the claim. She is, in fact, a distinctly lmman chilil, apparently about .seven years old, endowed with an average .share of intelligence, and possessing the faculty of articulate speech. Since her arrival about ten weeks stpro in London, she lias acquired several English words, which she uses intel'igonth%"and not merely parrot-fashion, as has been stated. Thus, on my suddenly producing my watch at the. interview, she ■\v;ts attracted'by tlie glitter, and cried out, "Cock, cock:"—that is, "Clock, clock:" This showed considerable powers of μ-enera-lisation, accompanied by a somewhat defective articulation, and it appears that her phonetic system does not yet embrace the liquids I and r. But in this and other respects her education is progressing favorably, and she has already so far adapted herself to civilised ways, that the mere threat to be sent back to her own people is always sufficient to suppress any symptoms of unruly conduct. Physically Krao presents several peculiar features. The head and low forehead are covered down to the bushy eyebrows with the deep, black, lank, and lustreless hair, characteristic of the Mongoloid races. The whole body is al.-:o overgrown Avith a far less de lsc coating of soft, black hair, about a quarter of an inch

long, but noAvhere close enough to conceal the color of the skin, Avhich may be described as of a dark olive-broAvn shade. The nose is extremely short and loav, Avith ex-cessiA-ely broad nostrils, merging in the full, pouched cheeks, into Avhich she appears to have the habit of stuffing her food, mon-key-fashion. Like those of tho anthropoids her feet are also prehensile, and the hands ho flexible that they bend quite back over the -wrists. The thumb also doubles completely back, and of the four fingers, all the top joints bend at pleasure independently inward*. Prognathism seems to be very slightly dovekvped, and the beautiful round black eyes are A - ery large and perfectly horizontal. Hence the expression is on the whole far from nnpleasing, and not nearly soapeHke as that of many Negritos, and especial]}of the Javanese " Ardi." But it should be mentioned that, when in a pet, Krao's lips are said to protrude so far as to give her ''quite a chimpanzee look." Apart from her history.one might feel disposed to regard this specimen merely as a '•' sport," or J>t.-iu it(ilnrn\ possessed rather of pathological than of a strictly anthropological interest. Certainly isolated cases of hairy persons, and oven of hairy families, are not unknown to science. Several were figured in a recent number of the Berlin Zntxchvljt fur Ethnologic, and, if I remember, both CraAvfurd ("Journal of an Embassy to Avti") and Colonel Yule (" Mission to the Court of Ava") speak of a hairy family resident for two or three generations at the Bmmesc capital. This family is reported to hare come originally from the interior of tho Lao country,"and in the same region avc are now told that little Krao and her parents, also hairy people, were found last year by the well-known Eastern explorer, Mr Carl Bock. Soon after their departure, the father appears to have died of cholera, Avhile the mother Avas detained at Bangkok by the Siamese Government, so that Krao alone could be brought to England. But before his death a photograph of the father Avas taken by Mr Bock, who describes him as "completely covered Avith a thick hairy coat, exactly like that of the anthropoid apes. On his face, not only had he a heavy, bushy beard and whiskers, similar in every respect to the hairy family at the court of the King of Buinuth, Avho also came from the same region as that in -which Krao and her father Avcre found; but every part Avas thoroughly enveloped in hair. The long aims and (he rounded stomach al -o prorLiimccl hi-- - k>-o alliance to the monkey - form, while Li., pmvr of and his in— ttlligencc were ;,o fnr developed tlisil before Ms-death ho ay a, able to utter a few words an Mala}"." , Assuming tho accuracy of these statements, and of this description, little Krao, of course, at once acquires exi.entional scientilic importance. She would, at'all events, be a living' proof of tho presence of a hairy race in Further India, a region at present mainly occupied by almost hairless Mongoloid people. From these paces tho large straight eyes would also d etach

the Krao type, and point to a possible connection with the hairy, straight-eyed Aino tribes still surviving in Yesso, and formerly widely diffused over Japan and the opposite mainland.