CHURLS OF THE TRIBE. 261 



other Monkeys, are great favourites with the Indians as an article 

 of food ; but they have so much the appearance of diminutive 

 members of the human family, that Europeans for the most part 

 decline to touch the dainty fare. 



The Howlers are the largest of the American Monkeys, and in 

 some districts they are also the most numerous. On the borders 

 of the Apure, Humboldt frequently counted as many as forty on 

 one tree, and in some parts of the country he says that as many 

 as two thousand may be found in a square mile. 



We now turn to the Baboons, the most sullen, ferocious, and 

 unloveable of all the Monkey tribe. Though belonging properly 

 to Africa, one species extends its range eastward to Arabia, and 

 another northward to the Rock of Gibraltar ; this latter being the 

 only member of the Monkey tribe indigenous to Europe. 



All the Baboons are robust and powerful creatures, and in 

 their form and aspect make an approach to the carnivorous ani- 

 mals ; their generic name, Cynocephalus, or Dog-headed, indi- 

 cating their resemblance to the canine family. They are mostly 

 found in rugged mountainous districts, where they climb about 

 among the rocks and precipices with great facility, and procure 

 their miscellaneous fare of berries, bulbous roots, eggs, insects, 

 and scorpions ; which latter they find in great abundance 

 amongst the loose stones, and, first dexterously nipping off the 

 sting, swallow alive. That modern Nimrod, Captain Gordon 

 Gumming, relates, that, during his wanderings in South Africa, 

 he once entered a rugged mountainous region, where he found 

 whole colonies of Black-faced Baboons, which, astonished to be- 

 hold such novel intruders upon their domain as himself and his 

 party, leisurely descended the craggy mountain sides to have a 

 nearer inspection of them. Having thus satisfied their curiosity, 

 the captain says they seated themselves together upon a broad 

 ledge, and " seemed to hold a council as to the propriety of per- 

 mitting us to proceed further through their territories." What 

 further happened we are not told. The great hunter is evidently 

 as chary of his sentences as of his powder over such mean game ; 

 he will spend them on nothing less than elephants and hippo- 

 potami, and " man-eater " lions. 



The huge Mandrill (Cynocephalus mormon), or ribbed-nose 

 Baboon, the largest and most ferocious of its race, is a native of 

 the western coast of Africa, where it associates in large troops, 



