234 MONKEY CALLED THE PREACHER. 



off with its booty, and devours it whenever conveni- 

 ent. It also contrives to get at the kernel of the 

 cocoa-nut, but without losing the milk. The natives 

 take the advantage of their fondness for this fruit, by 

 laying some of them, after boring a hole through the 

 shell, near their haunts : the first monkey that finds 

 them, thrusts his paw into one of these holes, in 

 order to get at the kernel ; and the people, who are 

 prepared for this circumstance, run up without delay, 

 and seize him before he can disengage himself 



The preacher is the largest of all the American 

 monkeys, being about the size of a fox : great num- 

 bers of them inhabit the woods of Brazil and Guiana. 

 They frequently assemble in companies, and placing 

 themselves in a kind of regular order, one of them 

 first begins with a loud tone, which may be heard to 

 a great distance : the rest soon join in full chorus, the 

 most discordant and terrible that can be conceived. 

 On a sudden, they all stop but the first, who closes 

 the assembly with a solo. They live in trees, and 

 leap from bough to bough with surprising agility, 

 catching hold with their hands and tails as they 

 spring from one branch to another; and maintain 

 their grasp so firmly, that, even when shot, they re- 

 main fixed till they die. 



Serpents are the great enemies to this active tribe, 

 and their agility is a more powerful defence than 



