Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c9.s24.5

c9.s24.5

Next to the elephants, we find monkeys and snakes figuring prominently in the Greek accounts. In the forests on the banks of the upper Jhelum long-tailed apes of an uncommon size were found in vast numbers, and Kleitarchus' famous story of Alexander's strange encounter with a troop of them has been noticed above. They were quick to imitate everything they saw and were therefore easily caught by hunters washing their eyes with water in their presence and then leaving pots of bird-lime behind which sealed the eyes of the apes when they came and smeared their eyes with it; an alternative method was the use of baggy trousers smeared inside with bird-lime. Different varieties of monkeys were known to Megasthenes and described in detail by him as may be seen from extracts preserved by Aelian. One of these varieties so resembled men in appearance that they could easily be mistaken for ascetics, and in an Indian city called Latage they were provided every day with a regular meal under the King's orders after which they quietly withdrew to the forests without causing any damage or injury. Of another type in the eastern Himalayas we read: ‘If these creatures are left unmolested, they keep within the coppices, living on wild fruit; but should they hear the hunter's halloo and the baying of the hounds they dart up the precipices with incredible speed, for they are habituated to climbing the mountains. They defend themselves by rolling down stones on their assailants, which often kill those they hit. The most difficult to catch are those which roll the stones. Some are said to have been brought, though with difficulty and after long intervals, to the Prasii, but these were either suffering from diseases or were females heavy with young.¹ Arrian remarked that the knowledge of the apes of the Indian forests was so common in his time that he did not think it necessary to say much regarding their size or the beauty which distinguishes them or the mode in which they are hunted.²