INDIA: Monkeyshines

Long before Darwin made the same claim for the whole human race, the fierce Dafia tribesmen of India's northeast frontier were proudly claiming descent from monkeys. To prove it, they wore false tails, swung happily among tree branches, screeched wildly in apelike imitation of Kipling's Bandar-log and grubbed under stones and logs for beetles which they ate whole and kicking.

Some British teaplanters found the Dafias' monkeyshines vastly amusing and rewarded them liberally with gifts of precious salt, clothes and trinkets. But British officialdom took a much dimmer view of the tribesmen...