MONKEYS' FAMILY LIFE. The Male's Sovereign Power—The Mother Monkey's Solicitude.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 120, 19 September 1885, Page 6

MONKEYS' FAMILY LIFE. The Male's Sovereign Power— The Mother Monkey's Solicitude.

Among other mammals the female element wields the sceptre in family life, but in the realm of apes the male is invested with the sovereign power, not by general suffrage, but by the right of force. The oldest and strongest male of a troop proclaims himself chief and leader, after having vanquished all his competitors. The longest teeth and strongest arms decide in the question of supremacy. All those who show reluctance to submit are chastised till they come to reason. To the strongest belongs the crown j in his sharp teeth resides his wisdom. The ferocious tyrant understands his duty as a leader, and performs the same with dignity. His subordinates flatter and fondle him in every way. As a genuine pasha he accepts this respect with a kind of languid acquiescence. In return he watches carefully over his vassals, and shows the continual anxiety for their welfare and security. He orders and directs minute details in daily life. The female monkey gives birth to the young one, very seldom to twins. The newborn monkey is a little, ugly creature, bare of hairs, with spindling limbs and a repulsive senile face. But the mother is passionatele fond of her monster, and caresses and nurses it with remarkable devotion. She does not leave it for a single moment ; she presses it to her heart, rocks it to and fro, and takes the utmost care to keep it absolutely clean. In the first period of life the baby is apathetic and almost insensible, but begins gradually to play with urchins of its age. The mother is a patient observer of the first steps of her beloved,- and watches carefully that no harm may befall it. In the meantime she trains it, and the first virtue inculcated in the mind of the youngster is obedience, obedience in the strictest sense of the word. Men have ridiouled the maternal affection of the. brute, and speak of •• apish love." In our eyes the tenderness exhibited by the monkey may have a ridiculous side, but where is the man who could, without deep emotion, witness the anxiety of a mother-ape nursing her sick child ? I must confess that, to my eye, in such cases Bhe is at least the equal of the human mother. * > , If the young ape dies, the spectacle is a piteous one, The mother 'cannot be separated from the dead body, refuses all food, and frequently perishes from grief. In 'such a oriflisithe-'ape proves oertainly his congeniality s with the human race, and in his moral affections could stand asan example to many men,— Naturalist's Letter.