27O CAMPS IN THE CARIBBEES. 



Here we found the tree by which they descended 

 from the heights above when they visited the banana 

 swamp — an immense jiguier, which had grown out 

 of a cleft in the rock, and had established itself on the 

 face of the cliff by a hundred roots and rootlets, 

 aerial and terrestrial, covering the rock with a mesh- 

 work ; from the upper branches hung long lianas, like 

 twisted cordage, down which monkeys would take 

 delight in swinging themselves. Down this great 

 natural ladder — the monkeys' highway — they always 

 came, whence they scattered through the plantain 

 groves. Often have they been hunted while there ; 

 but upon the approach of any one, no matter how 

 silently, their noise ceased at once, though they were 

 grunting and barking noisily before ; and in a few 

 minutes they could be heard hundreds of yards away. 



It is difficult to find them if wounded, as they hide, 

 and cling tenaciously to bush and tree. While travel- 

 ing (always among the tops of the highest trees) 

 they grunt and bark like dogs, and while feeding they 

 have a peculiar, low, murmuring chatter. They are 

 invariably led by the oldest monkey, who is exceed- 

 ing sly. 



The negro examined the ground where the monkeys 

 seemed to have held a last sitting over their harvest 

 of plantains, and declared they had been gone several 

 hours. He thought they would return in the morning, 

 as they have regular circuits of travel, appearing in 

 one section in the morning, and in another miles away 

 in the afternoon ; among the wild plantains and nut- 

 trees of the mountains in the evening, and carrying 

 destruction to the cacao and nutmeg groves at dawn. 

 I have seen heaps of cacao-pods, each with a small 



