Travels in India (Tavernier) 14.2.1

14.2.1

The Banians have a great veneration for monkeys, and they even feed them in some pagodas where they go to worship. There are in Ahmadabad two or three houses which serve as hospitals, especially for cows and oxen, for monkeys, and other sick and disabled animals, and they convey there all that they are able to find, in order to feed them. It should be stated that on every Tuesday and Friday all the monkeys in the neighbourhood of AhmadAbAd, of their own instinct, come together to the town, and ascend the houses, each of which has a small terrace where the occupants sleep during the great heat. On each of these days they do not fail to place upon these little terraces rice, millet, sugar-canes in their season, and other similar things ; for if by chance the monkeys did not find their food on the terraces, they would break the tiles with which the rest of the house is covered, and cause great damage. It should be remarked that the monkey eats nothing which he has not first well smelt, and before swallowing anything he makes his store for future hunger, filling his two cheeks with provisions, which he keeps for the following day.