Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-07-14
AN APE-RIDDEN CITY.
benares Tired of Her Sacred Monkeys
and Anxious 30 be Rid of Them.

and Anxious 10 be Rid of Them.
From the London Telegraph.
A railway company in India has de-
cllned to carry 10000 monkeys. Most
railway companies probably would.
mat such an undertaking, however,
should ever have been suggested to
board of directors is q curious incident in
railway history, yet it is the fact. The
Brahmans OF Benares, being anxious to
get rid of several thousand superfluous
monkeys, asked the company to carry
them away for them TO distant spot, but
the railway authorities showed no enthu-
siasm in closing with the offer of such
multitude of singular passengers. 1t is a
matter of common knowledge that In
Benares, the "City OF the Gods" there is
n very large and very sacred colony of
monkeys. Not only have they a temple,
properly furnished with shrines and
priests, specially dedicated to them, but
they are free of all the others besides. In
benares they can go where they like, and,
although this liberty is qualified by "A GER
tain measure of respectful opposition
when they abuse their privileges too out
rageously, the monkeys are virtually free
OF the whole city, private dwellings and
public buildings. Thus circumstanced,
| with every favorable condition tor Ion
gevity in individuals and fecundity in the
| species, IL is no wonder that the four
handed folk have become redundant.
! Even the Brahmans themselves have at
| last confessed that there are too many
monkeys in Benares, and are now trying
to rid themselves of a portion of the In
tOlerable burden of sanctity which such q
host OF reverend quadrupeds imposes upon
them. The common people, in spite Of the
sacredneSS OF the creatures, have long ago
begun to think that so large population
of idlers has its unsatisfactory side, and,
when we recOllect that "A monkey will
every day eat and waste as much grain or
| fruit as an average Hindu requires for his
weekly sustenance, ana that the mischief
in which these creatures pass their time
having nothing else, poor bored divinities,
to dO-must entail substantially appre-
ciable loss upon their human tellow-citi-
zens, it is not difficult to sympathze with
the ape-ridden men and women of the
Holy City. Without contributing III any
way to the material welfare of the sacred
place, these animals, 10000 or 50, cOnsti-
tute a very serious tax upon the working
population ana divert from other charities
Il vast quantity of good food. Each hand
full of grain which monkey wastes
would suffice for the meal of "a mendicant
fakir. At last, therefore, it has been de-
clded to take steps TO reduce the tailed
population. The monkey, however, is at
all times an intelligent person. He knows
as well as anybody else when he is we'll
OFF. In Benares he is especially cOntented.
Plenty Of good water, Unlimited Vegeta-
bles, fruit and grain, delightfully."- shady
hooks, VerandaS, temple corridors, etc,
commend themselves to him as a cOmbi-
nation of attractions not to be easily
matched elsewhere. SO that ne scouts all
suggestions of emigration. Once or twice
the piOus and benevolent old Rajah has
invited the fouf-handed hosts to come
across the river from the city
to his palace of RamnugguT, and
the priests have actually ferried boat
load after bOatlOad from one bank Of
the Ganges to the other. But the mon
keys pretended to misunderstood the ar
rangement. They affected to think the
trip a mere Outing-a days picnic. So,
though they allowed themselves to be
taken over in the morning with the ut
most cOmplacency, they always insisted
on being brought back again in the even
ing. Boats ply in large numbers upon
the river, and without asking for permits
sion or Offering to pay anything, they used
to ship themselves as passengers and re-
turn to sleep in the city.
On another occasion certain lands
short distance Off were specially set apart
by the princely Rajah for their manteu-
ance, and an immense number Of the ami
mails were respectfully conducted to their
new quarters and invited TO settle there.
But no; the monkeys found that there
were no sweetmeat stalls out in the fields,
no cake shops in the groves, and they
cOurteOusly yet firmly declined the Rajah's
proffered hospitality, and came strOlling
back into the city at their leisure. They
had tasted the pleasures of rural life,
and deliberately arrived at the conclusion
that they preferred those of the town; 30
theygave up the corn fields and mango trees
for the cool courts of the many tempted
city and the baZaars where lollipOps were
always to be had for the stealing. The
present effort, however-this of depOrting
by train TO such a distance as Saharun-
pore so large a number as l0,00O-is by
far the most serious that has been made,
and If the fOur-handed ones submit to be
depOrted this time they must make up
their minds for permanent exile. Rail-
way companies have no superstitions
about Hanuman; they do not worship
monkeys. Thus, unless the animals are
prepared to pay their own return fare,
and to travel back IN a respectable and
honest manner, they will have to bid fare
well to the beautiful old city where they
spent such happy years, and where their
bones will now have no chance Of sa-
credly reposng after death. There is
no chance Of their ever finding their way
haalr