Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1885 — The Monkey Takes the Place of the Slave. [ARTICLE]

The Monkey Takes the Place of the Slave.

Perhaps the only place in which attempts have been made to civilize the monkey is Malabar, India. A fine species indigenous in this quarter is the Neilgherry langur. The natives here have fanning machines called the punka. In other days the punka, which consists of a-movable frame covered with canvas and suspended from the ceiling, was kept in motion by a slave pulling a cord. An English officer conceived the idea of teaching the langur to do the work. He took one of the species and tied its hands to the cord, while by means of another cord the machine was kept in motion. The movement of the cord is up and down, and, of course, the monkey’s hands being tied to it, went up and down, and the animal saw the machine move. Its master patted its head and fed it with candy, and the langur soon learned to think it fun to work the machine. When I was in Malabar securing specimens of this species, I saw "thousands of them working the punka, the Indians having immediately put the animals in captivity when they saw their utility.— Dr. H. A. Ward, in New York Times.