The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1879-03-15
INTELLIGENT MONKEYS OF SIAM
London TalNgr.f,. Ian. 3lst


Monkeys" says the Arab proverb,
"can talk perfectly we'll if they choose
so to do; but they are far too clever to
let US into their secret. Well they know
that, were they to speak they would be
made to work; so they wisely hold their
tongues" If certain strange stories that
have reached our hemisphere from the
distant realm of Siam be founded upon
fact, the incomplete man." as some
German psychologists describe our re-
spected ancestor, whose fondness for
apples is considered to have exercised
considerable influence upon the des!inies
of humanity, is made to work in many
several ways. despite his affected ignor-
ance of articulate language. His prudent
science avails him naught in the domain
OF the White Elephant; and there are
at least 80 we are assured by an old
Austrian resident of the Siamese Court
few professions which he may not be
taught to practice with amazing skill and
admirable precision. He is trained to
fish for crabs with his tail, as comical a
pursuit as can we'll be imagined, except,
perhaps, for the worthy and intelligent
ape engaged in it, who sometimes gets
totally unable to land, and falls victim
to the superior weight af his Cancer
Ferox, who drags him into the water,
browns and finally devours him. The
Siamese ape is also stated to be in great
request among native merchants as o
cashier in their contingencies Vast
quantities of base coin obtain circulation
IN Siam. and the faculty of discrimina-
tion between good and bad would appear
to be possessed by these gifted monkeys
in such an extraordinary degree of devel-
opment that no N ere human being, how
ever carefully trained, can compete with
them. The cashier ape meditatively
puts into his mouth each coin presented
to him in business payments, and tests
it with grave delibcration. II it be gen.
uine, he hands it over to his master. II
it be counterfeit, he sets it down on the
corner before him with q solemn grimace
OF displeasure. His method OF testing ia
regarded in commercial circles as in
fallible, and, as matter of fact, his de-
cision is universally accepted by all
parties interested in the transaction.
But, though a true and invaluable sew
want 10 his own particular master, it
seems that his moral character is not
altogether irreproachable. His deplora-
BILE passion for fruit renders him the ter
ror of Siamese market gardeners who find
brute force inadequate to restrain him
from visiting their orchards, and there
fore have recourse to divers and sundry
stratagems, one Of which is reported to
be as successful as it is certainly in
genious. A specially active and enter
prising ape is captured and carefully
sewed up in skin of tiger-cat. He is
then turned loose in the orchard of his
prediction, and straightway chambers,
as we'll as he may, incumbered by an un-
familiar garment, into the branches of a
fruit tree among his unclothed fellows.
Scarcely do these latter set eyes upon
him, with all his feline terrors thick upon
him, when dreadful panic strikes them,
and they scramble away with piercing
screeches and agonized chatterings.
Never more do they return to an orchard
which they believe to be infested by the
deadliest enemy OF their race. The
startling intelligence is rapidly dissent.
mated throughout the monkey society oi
che neighborhood, and the willy gardene,
enjoys an absolute immunity from de.
probation forever afterward, for the very
thought OF tiger-cat appsls the Similar
soul, and doubtless the tale of "tht
awful apparition in Ting-tse's orchard ;
is handed down in quadrumanous fam
lilies from generation to generation.