Year: 1878

Itwas in a wild and dreary part of the
country, in the plains of India, while


iourneying, that one day a friend and
| self, says a correspondent, sat down I'M
| der the shade of an outrageous banyan-
| tree, and we were enjoying a meal OF
| various edibles, to be washed down by a
! glass of BASIS best, when we were dis
! turbed by the arrival and the noise Of a
| troop of large, black-faced monkeys-the
branches overhead literally swarmed
with them. They looked on US as inter-
lopers, no doubt, and for some time their
gestures appeared so menaGing that we
were apprehensive they would dispute
the ground with US. But, after a time,
things seemed to settle down, and we
went on with our repast in peace. We
had lust risen from our meal, and were
stroIiing forth from under the shade,
when, to our surprise, one of the mon
KEYS, a young one, fell down from high
branch at our feet. 1t was quite dead.
The clamor that rose above us, on the oc-
currence of this calamity, was deafening.
The whole assembly of monkeys clus-
tered together for confab. Long and
loud were the gatherings and varied the
grimaces of the tribe, each individual
wing with the other in the loudness of
his tongue. Their looks and gestures
made it apparent that they suspected US
as being the cause of the death of their
Juvenile comrade; and, had we had guns
/ in our hands, or any ether murderous
weapons, we should no doubt have been
set upon and maltreated But we were
unarmed, and the good sense of the
monkeys seemed to tell them that there
must be some other culprit. Having
come to this conclusion, one monkey. ap-
parently the senior and leader of the
| whole tribe, separated himself from the
rest, ran to the spot ON the branch
whence the young monkey had fallen,
examined it carefully, smelt the branch,
and then glided nimbly down one of the
pillars or pendant roots, with which the
banyan-tree is so richly furnished, and
came to the corpse of the monkey, TOOK
| it up, examined it minutely, particularly
the shoulder, where there was a wound
not a gun-shot, but one somewhat
| smaller. Instinct Immediately turned


suspicion into certainty. He placed the
corpse on the ground again, and, turning
his gaze in every direction, endeavored
| to pierce the foliage in his search for the
murderer. After little while something
seemed to rivet his attention it was but
| for moment-the next instant ne had
mounted the tree, sprung to the spot, and


with one clutch, had seized long whip
snake, with which he hastened to the
ground. Now occurred most curious
scene. The whole monkey rabble, fol-
lowing their leader in his rapid move
ment, were on the ground almost as soon
as he; and then as many as could, ranged


themselves on each side of the snake;
each monkey put his hand on the rep
tile, clutching hold of the skin Of the


back tightly. At a given sigma, the exc
cutioners dragged the body of the wrlth-
ing snake backward and forward on the
ground. till nothing was left of the muir
derer but the backbone The mode of
execution was at once summary and eff
fectual: and, in the way in which it was
carried out, was manifest the clear an-
derstanding which the monkey language
conveys. 1t reminds me of the lingo of
some of the Paharee tribes Of the Hima-
layas, which Co I of a string or sue
cession of sound ha-hd-hOo-hoo-hia-
hHl-equally uninv igible to us as the
chatterings of the monkey, but very well
understood by the 'hoonoomans" by
whom it is used; even as the monkeys
can comprehend one another.