Travels in India (Tavernier) 14.2.2

14.2.2

I have said that the Banians have an especial veneration for the monkey, and this is an example in point among several others which I could quote. Being one day at AhmadAbAd, at the dwelling of the Dutch, a young man of that nation, who had arrived but a few days to serve in the office, and who was ignorant of the customs of the country, having perceived a large monkey upon a tree which was in the courtyard, wished to give an example of his skill, or rather of his youth, by slaying it with a shot from his gun. I was at the time at table with the Dutch Commander, and we had scarcely heard the shot before we heard a great uproar among the Banians in the service of the Dutch Company, who came to complain bitterly of him who had slain the monkey. They all wished to resign, and it was with much trouble and many apologies that they appeased them and induced them to remain. In the neighbourhood of Ahmadābād there are a great number of monkeys, and it may be said that in the places where there are many of these animals there are few crows. For when the latter have built their nests and laid their eggs, the monkeys climb the trees and throw the eggs down on the ground. One day, returning from Agra, and having left Ahmadābād with the Chief or President of the English, who had come there for some business, and was returning to Surat, we passed, at four or five leagues from Ahmadābād, a small grove of those trees which they call mangoes.