MONKEYS AS WORKERS
. Big, impudent beasts, as they fire dejtcribod by one traveller, aro employed iiy tho Malayans in Sumatra to piok fiocoiiuts. Each of these trained apca had a long rope fastened to its body, while under observation by Dr. Max Weber, the distinguished naturalist, and his wife, says tho "Literary Digest." On being chased up into a troe the animal seatod himself on a branch and bogan to twist with his hands and foot ono of the coconuts that hung under the branch, until the stem broke and the fruit fell down. Moreover, if he dallied too long over his work the strap round his body was jerked unsympathetieally. How the ape knew which nuts ho was to pick remained a puzzle to Madame Weber, but a fruit never dropped that was not fully ripened. And this is only one of numerous -testimonies to the fact that simian Servants or slaves arc no novelty in the Bast Indies. Moreover, it appears % that the ancient Egyptians also found this solution for the labour problem of harvesting in tlio tall limber. :
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 58, 18 September 1928, Page 4
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181MONKEYS AS WORKERS Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 58, 18 September 1928, Page 4
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