Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture.

  • Religious Tract Society
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quadrupeds: or, outlines of a popular history of the class mammalia; with a particular notice of those mentioned in Scripture. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    certain account, except that they are said to dwell in troops, among the woods on the mountains, sending spies before them when about to enter a cultivated district for the purpose of plunder, and, if intercepted in their retreat, defending themselves by throwing dust and stones in the eyes of their assailants. From the specimens of these animals which we have seen in captivity, we should consider them to be lively, good- tempered, and playful: but it may be doubted whether this favourable disposition long conti¬ nues. The Diana is distinguished by a crescent¬ shaped bar of long white hairs ornamenting the forehead, and which, from a fancied resemblance to Diana’s fabled bow, the moon in her quarter, has given rise to the name. The back is of a dark chestnut colour; the head, neck, sides, and under parts deep grey; the hands and ears black; the cheeks are tufted with white hairs, which end below the chin in a flat pointed beard; the chest is also white. The Mona is even more elegantly marked. The top of its head is dark olive; the neck, back, and sides are chestnut brown, merging at the shoulders and haunches into a dusky slate colour, which prevails over the outside of the limbs and tail. The inside of the limbs and under surface of the body are pure white, separated from the darker colour by an abrupt line; a narrow crescent-shaped line of light grey surmounts the eyes ; and the face is surrounded by bushy whiskers of a light straw colour, intermingled with a few dark rings. To Africa must be likewise referred the Green Monkey, {Cercopithecus sabcsus,) a hand¬ some species, and, as its name imports, of a general olive green, with black hands and face. It is a native of Senegal, where Adamson found it peopling the woods in immense numbers. From their colour and silence, it was some time before he noticed them, hid as they were in the obscurity of the forest branches. They, how¬ ever, forced themselves into notice by throwing boughs at him ; nor were they at all frightened by the discharge of fire-arms, with which he re¬ turned their salute. He states himself to have killed twenty-three in less than an hour; a mur¬ derous destruction of animal life, in which we are sorry to find travellers too ready to indulge, and which can never be justified save by its ne¬ cessity. Of the necessity in this case, or in that mentioned in our notice of the red monkey, we do not presume to judge; but we would raise our voice indignantly against cruelty, a crime against which God has denounced his anger—a crime which the Christian must abhor who re¬ members his Lord’s assurance, that the works of his hand are all the objects of his care. Let our young readers never be guilty of injuring the meanest creature, nor, by hardening their hearts, prepare themselves for guilt in their riper age. Man is prone to run into extremes ; and it often happens that while we are presented with some peculiar folly or criminal line of conduct, against which we raise our voice of censure, we are, at the same moment, called to contemplate an opposite course, carried out to so great an extent as to become doubly loaded with sin and its heavy curse. It is so here:—on the one hand we turn with disgust from a work of slaughter in which man, refined and polished man, stoops to engage; on the other, we see with pity and horror a fellow immortal pros¬ trating himself before an irrational animal which he has elevated upon a throne of idolatry, for¬ getting the only true God, degrading his rational faculties, and proving how far man may fall in his apostasy. The monkey has been worshipped and held in sacred reverence as a divinity in the earliest ages : such was the case among the an¬ cient Egyptians, who numbered it among their gods, with the ichneumon, the ibis, and many other animals. This strange and idolatrous people have long since passed away; and al¬ though their language has ceased among the tongues of the earth, their tombs, their sarco¬ phagi, and their monuments, which seem to defy time, are a witness against them. But idolatry, in which the worship of brutes is included, survives the wreck of nations, so consonant does it seem to the depravity of our nature. Did not the Israelites of old, with the miracles which God wrought in their favour still fresh in their minds, with the commandments still sounding in their ears, and even while they knew that Moses was with God on the mount, rear the golden calf of idol homage in the very presence of Jehovah ? The spirit of idolatry had infected them in Egypt, and its poison re¬ mained in them, although with a high hand God led them through the wilderness. Among several nations in India the worship of brutes, somewhat softened down perhaps in its more revolting fea¬ tures, still continues. To destroy life, at least the life of a brute, at all, is accounted a sin among the Brahmins. They do not, however, stop here; but hold many animals in sacred reverence and homage. The Brahmin bull is a well-known example. To this must be added, we believe, more than one species of the monkey. Perhaps, reader, you may wonder that man, notwithstanding his degraded state, and his ignorance of that pure and holy faith which has enlightened i/our mind, should be so far dead to the natural dictates of reason, as to make such a brute the object of adoration. “ These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt!” said a stiff-necked and rebellious people. Why wonder? for the heart of man is desperately wicked. But, reader, while you are walking in the light, and are cheered by the beams of the gospel dispen¬ sation, let us inquire, have you no idol? Idol worship does not only consist in the gross folly and sin, which so pervade the dark regions of the earth, but also in giving our supreme affec¬ tions to any thing but God. Self-love, friends, property, pleasure, gold, silver—these are the idols before which Christians in name bow by thousands—these, which flee away like shadows —these, which fade in the enjoyment. Look, then, into the recesses of your own heart, and if you can say, “ Thou art my God “ Thou art my portionlet His be all the praise. But, in pity for those who are in the darkness of igno¬ rance, and know not the Lord Jesus Christ, evince the purity of your faith by your endea¬ vours to spread that knowledge which shall one day “ cover the earth.” I
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