Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1905-10-01

is not generally true of India, for ]
have seen monkeys killed there with
out any trouble resulting, but / believe
it is true of Benares.
At the Doorga hhond hundreds of
monkeys are kept as pets by the
priests They run about all over the
place just as they please and are never
Gagged or restrained in any way. AS
consequence they are jolly, good tenn
pered little fellows, quite unlike the
savage, sulky brutes you see in an
American zoo. 1t is a mistake to sup
pose that monkeys nature is essen
TALLY vicious.
The temple is simply a large paved
yard surrounded by high walls on
which there are lot of wooden boxes
and houses in which the monkeys live
There is big tank for the monkeys to
drink from and swim in, if they choose
to do so, and a huge banyan tree gives
| them all the gymnaStic exercise they
want Visitors are welcomed, but they
| are expected to buy food for the mon
keys from the priests at an exorbitant
| price. AS soon as they get inside the
monkeys mob them, climbing all over
them, snatching the food from their
hands and then scampering off to eat
| it in the banyan tree.
These monkeys and all Of their kind
| the grayish brown. short tailed common
monkey of northern India-are sup
| posed to be the descendants of Hunu-
man, the monkey god of southern In
dia. According to the myth of the
| Brahmans, Thurman aided Rama to
conquer Ceylon by building bridge of
rocks from India to that island His
| image is to be seen in most IIindoo
temples in the form of man with n
black monkAE,,s face and tail
Sacred monkeys scamper along the
streets and over the housetops i'll most
Indian cities and villages The shop
keepers are constantly worried by their
foraging escapades. but they dare MOI
resent them any more than those Of tin
sacred bull. These monkeys are often
the companions of the hermits and
fakirs with which India swarms, and
they are the chief part OF the congre-
| CATION in many temples where they are
fed and protected.
Tanks in which sacred crocodiles are
kept are attached to some temples in
Benares. In former days they were fed
with children and other human sacri-
fees, but the British government,
though very indulgent toward native
Superstitions, will, of course, not allow
that now. Some Anglo-Indians assert,
however, that such sacrifices are still
made on the sly Whether this is true
or not, it is a fact that many fanatical
| Hindoos would not kill a crocodile
which had killed their wife or child.
Some Hindoos are unspeakably cruel
to animals that are not sacred, but in
| general the faiths of India enjoin kind
ness to dumb animals as a religious
duty. Buddhism does so most en-
| phatically, for the whole tendency of
its teaching, rightly given, is to make
a man gentle and mild. The Parsees
are noted for their kindliness to all
| creatures, man and beast, and they
give largely out of their boundless
wealth to the support of the Jain tenn
pies. which are perhaps the most de-
lightful places in all India.
All the best elements in Brahmanism
flock to the Jain cult as the needle
flies to the magnet. The jams recog-
niZe all the gods of the Hindoo creed,
wear the Brahmanical thread and adj
here to Hindoo caste law. Yet they
are utterly unlike the average Brah-
man. They have agreed to ignore all
that is vile in Brahmanism and to de
vote themselves to all that is noble
They reverence the sacred animals
but they give to the worship a prac
teal twist by adoring all animals, al
living creatures, and by making veter
mary surgery at once their vocation
and their religion.
Every Jain temple is a hospital FOL
the lame, the blind, the sick and the
maltreated among animals. The priests
go around the streets of the crowded
city picking up dogs with broken legs
cats that have been nearly starved tx
death and birds with broken wings
If they see an ass or a horse that il
overworked and cruelty beaten, they
will buy it from the brutal owner. Al
the animals thus rescued are taken t.
the temple grounds and tenderly an(
patiently treated and nursed back Il
health.
India is, of course, not the only
oriental country in which animals arr
regarded as sacred In almost al
eastern lands, save those which arr
tightly in the grip of Islam, certain
dumb creatures are the objects Of rev
erence or of superstition, If not o
actual worship. Slams sacred whit,
elephant-a curious superstition graft
ed upon a debased form of Buddhism
is the best known example, but dozens
of others could be given.-Willian
Thorp in New York Post.