Chap. VI. CO A IT A HUNT. 245 



sence of a thumb to the anterior hands. It is worthy of 

 note that this strange deficiency occurs again in the 

 Quadrumanous order only in the Colobi, a genus of apes 

 peculiar to Africa. The Colobi, however, are not fur- 

 nished with prehensile tails, and belong, in all their 

 essential characters, to the Catarhinae, or Old World 

 monkeys, a group entirely distinct from the Plat3rrhinae, 

 or South American sub-order. The want of the thumb, 

 therefore, is not a sign of near relationship between the 

 Colobi and the Coaitas, but is a mere analogical cha- 

 racter, which must have originated, in each case, through 

 independent, although perhaps similar, causes. One 

 species of Coaita has a rudiment of thumb, without a 

 nail. The flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by 

 the natives in this part of the country, and the Military 

 Commandant of Obydos, Major Gama, every week sent 

 a negro hunter to shoot one for his table. One day I 

 went on a Coaita hunt, borrowing a negro slave of a 

 friend to show me the way. On the road I was much 

 amused by the conversation of my companion. He was 

 a tall, handsome negro, about forty years of age, with a 

 staid, courteous demeanour and a deliberate manner of 

 speaking. Strangely enough in a negro, he was a total 

 abstainer from liquors and tobacco. He told me he was 

 a native of Congo, and the son of a great chief or king. 

 He nan-ated the events of a great battle between his 

 father's and some other tribe, in which he was taken 

 prisoner and sold to the Portuguese slave-dealers. 

 When in the deepest part of the ravine we heard a 

 rustling sound in the trees overhead, and Manoel soon 

 pointed out a Coaita to me. There was something 



