Morris tribune., 1883-03-17
KRAO. THE HUMAN MONKEY
A So-Called Missing Link on Exhi-
bition in London.

a. H. keane, in Nature.
Through the courtesy of NJ. Farini, |
have had private interview with this
curious little wait, which he is now ex-
hibitlng at the Royal Aquarium, West
minister, and for which he claims the
distinction of being the long sought-for
missing link" between man and the
anthropoid apes. Krao certainly pre-
sents some abnormal peculiarites, but
they are scarcely ola sufficiently pro-
nounced type to justify the claim. She
is, In fact, distinctly human child, APP
parently about years old, endowed
with an average share of intelligence,
and possessing the faculty of artlculate
speech. Since her arrival about ten
weeks ago in London, she has acquired
several English words, whichsshe uses
intelligently, and notE merely parrot
fashion, as has been stated. Thus, OH
my suddenly producing my watch at the
interview, she was attracted by the gilt
ter, and cried out ''cock, c'ock"-that is,
clock, clock. This showed considerable
powers of generalization &C
companied by a somewhat defective ar
ticulation, and it appears that her phon-
etic system does not embrace the liquids
| and r. But in this and other respects
her education is progressing favorably,
and she has already SO far adapted her
self to civilized ways, that the mere
threat to be sent back to her own peo-
pie is always sufficient to suppress any
symptoms of unruly conduct.
Physically, Krao presents several Pc
l.,
head are covered down to the bushy eye
brows with the, deep black, lank and
lusterless hair, characteristic ofthe Mon
.golian races. The whole. body is also
OvergroWn with far less dense coating
of soft, black hair about a quarter af an
inch long, but nowhere close enough to
conceal the color Of the skin, which may
be described as of dark olive-brown
shade. The nose is extremely short and
low, with excessively broad nostrils,
merging in the full, pouched cheeks,
into which she appears to have the
habit of stufing her food, monkey-fash-
ion. Like those of the anthropoids, her
feet are also prehensile, and the hands
80 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 indie
pendently inward. Proguasthism seems
to be very slightly developed, and the
beautiful round black eyes are very
large and perfectly horizontal. Hence
the expression is on the whole far from
unpIeasing, and not nearly so ape.like
as that of many Negritos, and especially
of the Javanese "Ardi," figured by me
in Nature, Vol. XXIII, p. 500. But it
should be mentioned that when in a pet
Krao's lips are said to protrude SO far as
to give her "quite chimpanzee look"
Apart from her history one might feel
dispersed to regard this specimen mere
ly as. a :'sport,". or lusus nature, pos
sessed rather Of a pathological
than of a strictly anthropol-
ogical interest. Certainly isolated cases
of hairy persons, and even of hairy fam
lies, are not unknown to science. Sew
eral were figured in a recent number of
the Berlin Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie,
and, l remember, the Crawford Jour
nal of an Embassy to Avao speak of
hairy family resident for two or three
generations at the Burmese capital. The
family reported to haye come originally
from the interior of the Lao country,
AMI in the same region we are now told
that little Krao and her parents also
hairy people, were found last year by
the we'll known eastern explorer Mr..
Carl Rock. Soon after their capture
the father appears to have died of chol-
era, while the mother was detained at
BANGKOK by the Siamese government, SO
that Krorlone could be brought to Eng
land. But before his death photograph
of his father was taken by Mr.. Rock,
who describes him as completely COW
cred with thick hairy coat, exactll
like that of the anthropoid apes,"