Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

Monkey Sagacity.
It was a wild and dreary part of the country, in the plains of India, while journeying, that one day a friend and myself sat down under the shade of a banana tree; and were enjoying a meal of various edibles, when we were disturbed 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 interlopers, no doubt; and for some time their gestures appeared so menacing that we were apprehensive they would dispute the ground with us. We had just risen from our meal, when, to our surprise, one of the monkeys, a young one-fell down from a high branch at our feet. It was quite dead. The clamor that arose above us was deafening. The whole assembly of monkeys clustered together for a confab. Long and loud were the chattering’s, and various the grimaces of the tribe, each individual being with the other in 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. 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, apparently 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 pillar or pendant roots, and came to the corpse of the dead monkey, took it up, examined it minutely, particularly the shoulder, where there was a small wound. Instinct immediately turned suspicion into certainly. 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 a little while something seemed to rivet his attention. In an instant he had mounted the tree, sprung to the spot, and with one clutch had seized a long whip snake, with which he hastened to the ground. Now occurred a most curious scene. The whole monkey rabble, following their leader, was on the ground almost as soon as he; then as many as could arrange themselves on each side of the snake. Each monkey put his hand on the reptile, clutching hold of the skin of the back tightly. At a given signal the executioners dragged the writhing snake backward and forward on the ground till nothing was left of the murderer but the backbone. The mode of execution was effectual, and, in the way it was carried out, showed the clear understanding which the monkey language conveys.