Cir.vr. VI. GIGANTIC RUTTKIJ FLIES. 247 



my old woman ; you're an angel, a flower, a good affec- 

 tionate old creature," and so forth. Immediately the 

 poor monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came 

 over to where the man sat. The disposition of the 

 Coaitci is mild in the extreme : it has none of the painful, 

 restless vivacity of its kindred, the Cebi, and no trace of 

 the surly, untameable temper of its still nearer relatives, 

 the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, however, an 

 arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfering 

 small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping- 

 place. The natives of the Upper Amazons procure the 

 Coaita, when full grown, by shooting it with the blow- 

 pipe and poisoned darts, and restoring life by putting a 

 little salt (the antidote to the Urari poison with which 

 the darts are tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus 

 caught become tame forthwith. Two females were once 

 kept at the Jardin des Plantes of Paris, and Geoffrey 

 St. Hilaire relates of them that they rarely quitted each 

 other, remaining most part of the time in close embrace, 

 folding their tails round one another's bodies. They 

 took their meals together ; and it was remarked on such 

 occasions, when the friendship of animals is put to a hard 

 test, that they never quarrelled or disputed the possession 

 of a favourite fruit with each other. 



The neighbourhood of Obydos was rich in insects. 

 In the broad alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly 

 of the genus Morpho, six to eight inches in expanse, the 

 Morpho Hecuba, was seen daily gliding along at a 

 height of twenty feet or more from the ground. 

 Amongst the lower trees and bushes numerous kinds of 



