MONKEYS OF DELHI

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 130, 29 November 1932, Page 7

MONKEYS OF DELHI

CASE-OF KIDNAPPING

BABY RECOVERED BY RUSE

CALCUTTA, 2Sth November.

The monkeys of Delhi are • adopting the habits of Chinese bandits. A largo monkey entered a room of a Delhi residence and carried away a twb-months-old baby from its cradle. The animal ascended a tree and fondled the baby as if it were its own. ;

A hue-and-cry was raised, but the monkey was unperturbed, beyond making a strategical move from tree to tree to evade the excited crowd. Nearly half an hour elapsed when suddenly it occurred to the anxious father to bargain with the kidnapper by displaying . a dishful of delicacies, but the monkey refused to budge until the crowd had moved away a respectable distance. . ':. .

The. monkey then slowly descended, hastily partook of a meal, and departed, leaving the child on the ground iia'h.armeVl.

ANIMALS WHO THINK

People who say that animals do not think can never have met the wild beasts in India; Of.janimal thought, and conscious thought, translated into aefion no'man who lias wandered in the jungle .can have any long'doubts .(writes' Major A. AY. Howlett in :the "Manchester Guardian."). ... .

One naturally looks' for the greatest display of intelligence in the monkey tribe, and in Jndia monkeys seem, to be almost included in the population, and are vastly conscious of the privilege. They .are sacred animals, and one of the most familiar gods in the Hindu temples is Hanuman^. the grim idol with, the monkey face." In Ajodhya, the oldest city in the world, you find a city all but given over to monkeys. In the streets and lanes of this great city it is nionkeys, monkeys every-' where. They sit,on the.corners of the low houses and leap down on the heads of the fruit and sweet sellers as they pass underneath; they steal from them and from the open counters of the shopkeepers' booths, and none dare say them nay. At the least look- of hostility or offence they gibber arid show their teeth, puckering their evil little faces; and so conscious are they of the human discovery that union, is strength that at a threat of danger or insult they collect like a crowdof street arabs and will readily tear" the offender to pieces bo lie dog or man.. Once I was following a mountain path in the Himalayas looking for jungle fowl down The slope, with niy shikari well ahead of me, when we came on a. gang of the great grey lahgur monkeys playing about on top of a cliff. Immediately they saw.us they started to beckon and gesticulate, and ag niy man came underneath two', or three began to push and roll the boulders down on top of him, just like a crowd .of mischievous pchoolboys. ,1 'gave a loud yell, partly to warn him and partly to frighten them, and he at once dodged under a ledge. But I found my own predicament unpleasant in the extreme. I was not to be turned back by a crowd of monkeys; moreover, if I retreated, they would probably follow me. I contented myself with looking at them as sternly as I could, ostentatiously displaying the flashing steel barrels of my gun, and determined; to pick out the leader and fire at once if they tried rushing me. They mouthed and gibbered at me as I passed beneath, but all sat .quiet among the rocks till I had passed and got beyond them. •

In Lucknow itself, thongh it is not given up to theni so completely aa Ajodhya, monkeys swarm, in the native city and play' about as if they were children. Once, as I was standingl talking in the mud-walled courtyard of a small house, I heard a sudden wild hubbub outside, and through the open doors and across the yard a half-dozen young monkeys dashed screaming like mad cats. Ere I could take in the joke my feet were suddenly knocked from tinder me'as if by a sledge-hammer, and I fell on my back. As I got up I saw a great male monkey in the corner gnashing his teeth and about to spring on me. Ho was in a desperate rage, and seemed to think I had got in -his way on purpose. But after a second or two he gave another squeal of rao-e, and dashed off in pursuit of the xest They are fond of playing "Tic," but it often- ends in a fracas, as the old ones find they cannot catch the young ones, and the youngsters, after their kind, "delight in teasing their elders.