The Opelousas courier., 1890-10-04
A CITY FULL OF MONKEYS,
MUTTRA IN INDIA rs ovERRUN nv
THE LITTLE IMPs.
AS They are Held Sacred They are a
Privileged Class and Make tho
Lives of Citizens Burden

Lives OF Citizens a Burden.
The head centre of all monkevdom is
the holy city of Muttra, OF Mathura. >
sort of supplementary Benares on the
river Jumna. Here we find another sne-
eies, the same, l think, from which the
organ-grinder generally selects his part
ner. The principal care in life of the
citizens is to protect themselves and
their property from the depredations Of
this privileged class, for, as they are sa-
ered-and what animal is not in Hindoo
land2-they cannot be killed OF molested
in any manner.
Every window in the town il barred
with lattiees, as not even the highest is
out of their reach, for they could give
points to the best gymnast that ever
swung on q trapeze. Along the under
side Of the highest balconies they follow
n another in single file, leaping past
intervening brackets, or with one bound
they clear the street, and swinging from
the pendant branches of a banyan tree.
in they go at some small opening left
for a moment unguarded, lured by the
sight of bowl of milk on the sill; and
when they are chased out again at the
point Of the broomstick, they 90 and con
sole themselves among the stalls of the
Srait-selIers in the bazaar. But their chief
feld of action is along the sghats,n
where stone steps descend to the fast,
flowing Jumna. Here at intervals are
octagonal stone towers separating the
different bathing places, often surmount-
ed by domes on slender column IS. A tall
sculptured tower of red sandstone rises
straight from the brink among a group
of time-worn temples. This tower seems
to be tenanted only By monkeys. There
still remain a few stone gargbyles, but
the animated gargoyles are even more in
teresting. At a small square window sits
a mother monkey with her infant; near
the base of the tower squat small urchins
provided with large shallow baskets of
what seem to be dried pease. At a sign
from the passer, they scatter handfuls
over the pavement. which is at once COW
cred and nearly hidden by a ftruggling
mass of monkeys.
In the early morning hours these steps
are crowded with bathers and women,
filing their sparkling copper jars with
water; the varied colors of the costumes,
the fantastic architecture, the dense
foliage and dropping branches of the
great banyans which oveehang the water,
are all mirrored in the swiftly-moving
current. One of the CHATS is set apart for
the women who come TO battle, and here
il an ever-shifting Kaleidoscope Of
vivid color. The eye is caught by
the simmer of silk and gold, as they
throw off their shining draperies and re-
veal their lovely outlines and the satin
lustre of their amber-brow skins. Some
times a sudden shrek goes up from
among the fair bathers, as some enter
prising monkey is seen scaling up to the
wide caves of a temple, dragging after
him an embroidered achuddah." Then
there is q great hubbub and babel of
tongues, and the monkey police appear
on the scene. The chief business of
these men is to keep a watchful eye on
the little demons; they are armed with
long white wands, which are only used
to lnfimidate the transgressor, but it
would seem without much success.
Their unusual plan, since the shawl is
always high out of reach, is to place q
bit of fruit or some other tempting bait
on a lower terrace, and then to steal
around to the rear, while the monkey is
expected to forget the shawl in his.
eagerness To seize the new plumber; but
i have seen him cautiously descend,
dragging the shawl after him, c the
fruit, and then make good his escape,
without losing any Of his booty, to
some eminence whence he could safely
deride with hideous graimaees his
bafiied pursuers. A frequent object
of cupidity is q small, glittering
brass pot which every Hindoo carries for
drinking purposes, and which IS sone-
times filed with sour milk, or some
other s~ueeulent dainty. The successful
robber retires to the roof of some shrine
Just above the heads of the crowd, nom
chalantly devours the contents of the pot,
and then, forgetting all about it, down
1t falls from his careless hand on the head
of some unlucky wight below. One
morning an unusual commotion arose
among the monkey population ~ an ele-
plant passed along the narrow street just
above tho steps. The excitement was
intense, particularly among the smaller
fry, who followed along from roof to
roof, peeping out from behind the open
ings at the colossus with the eager Curl
osity of small boys. A most moving in.
cident was a fight nearly to death be
tween two rival patriarchs, and am
sure that We could not asve felt
more breathless interest," at our first
bull-fght in Granada. One would
have expected much preliminary
chattering and mutual vituperationi put
nd; the c~ombatants went at IT with the
d6iet determination of two veteran pu-
gilists. At first there vas considerable
excitement among the others as they az
rushed down to take part in the fTayi
but the monkey police used their sticks
to good advantage in keeping them back,
and then tried to senaratethe principals;
touch them they dared not. All the
crowd came down md formed 4 ring on
the steps; some threw water on the com
batants, but it was Of no use. They
clinched, tugged, and wrestled the fur
few; they both fell into the water. and
crawled out nearly drowned and 90
weakened BY loss Of blood that they
could hardly stand, and at last they
dragged themselves YEARLY upthe street,