The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1888-08-18
FRANKS OF MONKEYS.
Comical Sights Observed by Bicyc
Traveller In India.

Comical Sights Observed by Bicycle
Traveller in India.
wheeled some fourteen hundred
miles along the monkey-infested high
ways and saw some very curious sights.
Sometimes the monkeys would file in
long strings across the road, close be-
hind one another, each one looking
anxiously behind, evidently very much
disturbed at the strange appearance of
the bicycle. Shining up the tall teddy
palms or cocoanut trees, one after an
other, they would hastily ensconce
themselves among the thick foliage,
and peer curiously down at me as |
wheeled past, giving vent to their per-
turbation in excited cries. One day
remember Willing away an hour or so
beneath grove of sacred peepul trees,
watching the amusing antics of troop
of monkeys in the branches overhead.
Their marvellous activity was here
displayed to perfection, as they quar-
relied and chased one another from tree
to tree. The old ones seemed passive
ly irritable, and decidedly averse to
being. bothered by the antics and mis-
chievous activity of the youngsters.
Taking possession of some particular
branch, they warned away all would
be intruders with threatening grimaces
and feints. The youthful members of
the party were full of pranks, carried
on to the great annoyance of their
more aged and sedate relatives. These,
in revenge, put in no small portion OF
their time furnishing or pursuing them
with angry cries for their deeds OF
wanton annoyance.
One monkey, that had very evident
ly been there many and many time
before on the same thieving errand,
with an amusing secresy and roguish-
ness, slipped quickly along horizon
tai Dough, and thrust his arm into a
hole. His eyes wandered guiltily
around, as though eXpectant of detec-
ton and punishment This apprehen-
sion quickly justified itself in the shape
of u blue-plumaged bird that huttered
angrily about the robbers head and
caused him to beat hasty retreat.
Birds eggs were the booty he expected
to find, and methought, as | noted
the number, mischievousness and
activity of the freebooters to
whom birds eggs would be most
toothsome morsels, watchful indeed
,,,,,o+ l,a tho ,,oroD+ bir6 Wy oSa n, form n
ambition bore its legitimate fruit in
this monkey-infested grove. In me
( these monkeys seemed to recognize a
( possible dangerous enemy, and at my
first appearance they fastened to hide
among the thickest foliage. Peerin2
cautiously down, they yielded them
selves up to excited chattering and
broad grimaces. After awhile they
garded me with less apprehension
The wild monkeys and the natives seen
to get along famously together, one
often seeing them occupying the shade
of the same tree.
In the valley of the Hooghly, dowr
toward Calcutta, my road sometime:
partook almost of the character of {
tunnel, burrowing through a mass o
dense tropical vegetation. Cocoanu
and toddy palms mingled their feathery
foliage with the dark green of the
mango, the wild pomoln, giant
bamboo, and other indigenous vegeta
ton characteristic of a hot and humid
climate, and big creepers swung from
tree to tree and wound the mass in.
eXtricable confusion.
In this magnificent conservatory O
nature big, black-faced monkeys, with
tails four feet long, romp and revel
through the trees, nimbly climb the
creepers, and thoroughly enjoy theil
life amid the sylvan scenes about them
1t was a curious sight to see those bis
anthropoids, almost as large as human
beings, swing themselves deity up the
festooned creepers at my approach
to see their queer, impish black faces
peering cautiously out of their hiding
place, and to hear their peculiar
squeak of surprise and alarm as they
noted the strange character of my con
veyance, the bicycle. Sometimes ;
gang Of them would lope awl1wardly
along ahead Of the bicycle, looking
every inch like veritable imps of dark
ness, pursuing their silent course
through the chastened twilight o
green-grown subterranean passage
ways, their ridiculously long tail
raised aloft, and their faces most of the
time looking over their shoulder
Nature.
TWO GOOD REMEDIES.
How to Cure Gapes in Chicks and Prevent