34 MAMMALS

mangabeys, probably guenons, which were well known
in Rome and Athens under the name of Cebus, which
now does duty as the generic designation of an
American family.

There are monkeys in many of the Asiatic islands.
In the Nicobars, as well as on the Arakan coast, there
is that remarkable animal the crab-eating macaque,
which has forsaken the usual simian food in favour
of a diet of crabs and insects, and frequents the tidal
creeks and rivers in family parties of half a dozen or
more, swimming and diving as readily asa man. In
Sumatra there are a large number of species; but
then, Sumatra is a haunt of the orang, and the special
home of the siamang, the largest of the long-armed
gibbons, whose morning and evening observances
attracted the attention of Duvaucel. ‘Siamangs,’ he
says, ‘generally assemble in numerous troops, con-
ducted, it is said, by a chief whom the Malays believe
to be invulnerable, probably because he is more agile,
powerful, and difficult to reach than the rest. Thus
united, they salute the rising and setting sun with
the most terrific cries, which may be heard at several
miles’ distance ; and which, when near, deafen when
they don’t frighten. This is the morning call to the
mountain Malays, but to the inhabitants of the towns
it is a most insupportable annoyance,’

In Java lives the wou-wou, or silver gibbon, its
congener the agile gibbon being found as far north
as the Sulu Islands, between the Philippines and
Borneo. In Borneo, monkey life is well represented,
from the orang downwards, and one species, Hose’s
langur, haunts the woods at elevations up to 4,000 feet