THE UTILISATION OF MONKEYS.
o In the Straits Settlements of the East,' largo apes of naturally intelligent .breeds are employed by their masters much in the same way that human slaves are made use of in some parts of Africa. The cocoanufc palm is valuable for its fruit, but this is very difficult to procure, so the landlord of a “ tope” of palms in the Malayan peninsula trains his apes to climb the trees and judiciously pick the ripest nuts for him, just as the Mozambique Arab trains his negroes to perform the same arduous office. But there appears to bo a slight difference beweon the two cases-the apes seems to delight in the work. The apes thus employed in the neighbourhood of Singapore and Penang are bred in Atching, and the owners itinerate and hire them out. They go up the trees with a line attached, and obey the command of their masters choosing the proper fruit. They twist the nut round and round till it falls down from its stock, when the feat is hailed on the part of the apes by jumps and chuckles of evident satisfaction.
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Dunstan Times, Issue 683, 21 May 1875, Page 1
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190THE UTILISATION OF MONKEYS. Dunstan Times, Issue 683, 21 May 1875, Page 1
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