XCV QUARRELSOME APES

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The town of Bindrabund in India is in high regard with the pious Hindoos, who resort to it from the most remote parts of the empire. The town is surrounded by groves of trees, which are the homes of numberless apes, whose fondness for mischief is increased by the religious respect paid to them in honor of a divinity of the Hindoo mythology, who is represented as having the body of an ape. Because of this superstition, such numbers of these animals are supported by the free-will offerings of pilgrims, that no one dares to resist or ill-treat them. Hence, access to the town is often difficult; for should one of the apes take a dislike to any unlucky traveller, he is sure to be assailed by the whole community, who follow him with all the missile weapons they can collect, such as pieces of bamboo, stones, and dirt, making at the same time a most hideous howling. Of the danger attending a meeting with enemies of this description, the following is a melancholy instance. Two young cavalry officers, belonging to the Bengal army, having occasion to pass through the town, were attacked by a body of apes, at whom one of the gentlemen had foolishly fired. The alarm instantly drew the whole body, with the fakeers, out of the place, with so much fury that the officers, though they were mounted upon elephants, were compelled to seek safety in flight; and in trying to pass the Jumna, they both of them were drowned.


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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