Note 5 — Chapter II · THE HEROIC AND VILLAGE GODLINGS.

But the fact of monkey-worship is susceptible of a much simpler explanation. The ape, from his appearance and human ways, is closely associated with man. It is a belief common to all folk-lore that monkeys were once human beings who have suffered degradation,5 and according to one common belief stealers of fruit become monkeys in their next incarnation. But the common theory that the monkey is venerated in memory of the demigod Hanumân is, as Sir A. Lyall6 remarks, “plainly putting the cart before the horse, for the monkey is evidently at the bottom of the whole story. Hanumân is now generally supposed to have been adopted into the Hindu heaven from the non-Aryan or aboriginal idolaters; though, to my mind, any uncivilized Indian would surely fall down and worship at first sight of an ape. Then there is the modern idea that the god was really a great chief of some such aboriginal tribe as those which to this day dwell almost like wild creatures in the remote forests of India; and this may be the nucleus of fact in the legend regarding him. It seems as if hero-worship and animal-worship had got mixed up in the legend of Hanumân.”