THE MONKEY TRIBE. 7 



clever tricks. I met him one day suddenly as he was 

 coming up the drawing-room stairs. He made way for 

 me by standing in an angle, and when I said ' Good 

 morning,' took off his cap, and made me a low bow. 

 4 Are you going away ? ' I asked ; ' where is your 

 passport?' Upon which he took from the same cap a 

 square piece of paper, which he opened and showed to 

 me. His master told him my gown was dusty, and he 

 instantly took a small brush from his master's pocket, 

 raised the hem of my dress, cleaned it, and then did 

 the same for my shoes. He was perfectly docile and 

 obedient : when we gave him something to eat, he did 

 not cram his pouches with it, but delicately and tidily 

 devoured it ; and when we bestowed money on him, he 

 immediately put it into his master's hands. 



Much more accomplished monkeys than those of 

 which I have spoken have been known to act plays, 

 and to assume the characters they have undertaken, 

 with a spirit and aptitude which might tempt us to 

 suppose that they were perfectly cognizant of every 

 bearing of their different parts ; and their stratagems 

 to procure food, and defend themselves, are only 

 equalled by human beings. 



Denizens of those mighty forests which clothe the 

 earth between the tropics of both the Old and New 

 World, assembling by hundreds in those lands where 

 the Palm, the Banian, the Baobab, the Bombax, and 

 thousands of magnificent trees adorn the soil, where 

 the most delicious fruits are to be procured, by merely 

 stretching out the hand to separate them from their 

 parent stem, no wonder that both apes and monkeys 

 there congregate, and strike the European, on his first 

 arrival among them, with astonishment. I had seen 



