272 



MONKEY. 



the Indians of the Upper Orinoco, though what this 

 name implies in their language is not correctly 

 known. It is a curious fact that there are very few 

 animals of which the names can, in any language, 

 be so interpreted as to have even as much meaning 

 as to point out any one quality of the animal ex- 

 pressible by a more primitive word. From this it 

 should seem that, in the rude stages of society, 

 animals were among the first subjects which mankind 

 called by conventional names, calculated fur bringing 

 the subject before the mind of the hearer when it was 

 absent from his bodily observation. This comes very 

 nearly to the account of Adam's first labour, which 

 was that of naming the beasts ; and it is satisfactory 

 to find that, even in so trivial a matter as this, the 

 declaration ot Holy Writ is in strict accordance with 

 those conclusions to which we are led by personal 

 observation. 



Those Indians are very partial to this little animal, 

 and generally keep it in their houses, and their 

 example is followed by the missionaries, and other 

 persons from Europe, or the European settlement?, 

 who take up their abode in that wild and remote 

 part of the country. It seems that the animal is par- 

 ticularly fond of riding; for Hurnboldt mentions one 

 belonging to the Maypuri Indians, which regular! v 

 mounted a pig every morning, and sat quietly on its 

 back during great part of the day, while the pig, 

 apparently quite unannoyed by the burden of its little 

 rider, collected its food in the savannah with perfect 

 unconcern. Another, belonging to a missionary, is 

 described as making a cat a substitute for a charger, 

 and that even (his animal did not show much resent- 

 ment. Whether the old fable, of taking the cat's 

 paw to get the burning chestnuts out of the fire, may 

 have been practised by any of these animals, we 

 cannot say (only it is not unlikely) ; but certainly these 

 little gentle sapajous take great liberties with other 

 domestic animals, and, generally speaking, with the 

 greatest impunity. 



The horned Sapajou (C. fatuellus}. This species 

 is a little, but only a very little, larger than the two 

 which have been mentioned. Its colour is blackish 

 maroon on the back, bighter maroon on the sides, and 

 bright red on the belly, with the head, the legs, and 

 the tail brownish. It is, however, subject to con- 

 siderable varieties in the general colouring, no two 

 describers exactly agreeing as to the tint of any one 

 part of it. The fact is, that very many animals, 

 tropical animals especially, appear of different shades 

 of colour according to the different lights in which 

 they are seen, and therefore considerable allowance 

 must be made for those diversities which we meet 

 with in the published descriptions. There is another 

 source of apparent difference in many of the monkeys, 

 and in this one in particular. The skin is generally 

 coloured, and not unfrequently of a bright colour, so 

 that it shines through the hair where that is thin, 

 and imparts a colour which the hair does not possess. 

 The skin of this one is purplish red, and the hair on 

 the under part of the body very thin ; hence the 

 apparent brightness of the colour of that part. One 

 of the greatest peculiarities in this species is the 

 direction of the dark hairs on the forehead. These 

 rise from a little above the eyes, and stand up higher 

 than the top of the head, which is round, and appears 

 smooth from the shortness of the hair. Seen in front, 

 those hairs of the forehead are parted in the middle, 

 and end in two stiff and pointed tufts, to which the 



name of horns has been absurdly given, though 

 " tufted sapajou " would have been a far more appro- 

 priate name. Seen in profile, the aspect of those 

 produced hairs of the forehead is very different ; and, 

 in this situation, the animal altogether bears some 

 slight resemblance to a mailed warrior, with the visor 

 of his helmet up ; and the resemblance would be 

 nearly complete, if the naked ear of the animal did 

 not make its appearance. From the angles of the 

 erected hairs on the forehead, the hair on the cheeks 

 turns downwards, and then forwards on the chin, but 

 with an intermediate white patch, bordered by a 

 black one on the side of the cheek. The black 

 might pass for a whisker, and the white for a cowl 

 under the helmet, while the erected part shows as if 

 it could be turned down, and exactly cover and pro- 

 tect the face. All these resemblances are of course 

 purely imaginary, but they belong to that class of 

 imaginary appearances which are well calculated to 

 fix the real appearances in the memory. 



The robust Sapajou (C. robustus]. This is de- 

 scribed as a Brazilian species ; but it approaches so 

 nearly to the weeper monkey, that it is probably only 

 an accidental variety of that, the chief difference 

 being, that it is a little larger and a little brighter 

 in the colouring. Cebus libidinosus is another Brazi- 

 lian species, mentioned by Spix, as indicating an 

 approximation to the baboons in some of the more 

 repulsive habits of these ugly animals. The account 

 was given, however, from an animal in a state of 

 confinement ; and it is so contrary to the general 

 conduct of the whole genus, that we must regard the 

 habit as individual, and probably artificial, and not as 

 belonging to, or in any way entitled to beeome, the 

 name and the discriminating character of a species. 

 The description of this one was given as follows : The 

 tuft on the head blackish brown ; the beard curling 

 in a circle round the face ; the back, breast, throat, 

 beard, under side of the tail, and limbs, with exception 

 of the arms and thighs, rusty red ; the fore part of 

 the throat deep reddish brown ; and the cheeks, chin, 

 and fingers, bright brown. 



The large-headed Sapajou (6*. marriuchus). Few 

 individuals of this species have been met with. Such 

 as have been examined have been obtained from some 

 part of South America, though from what particular 

 part is not known. The forehead is rounded, and the 

 eye-balls prominent; the breast, the belly, the cheeks, 

 the sides of the face, and outsides of the arms, pale 

 yellowish orange, passing into white at the fore part 

 on the face, and at the hind part on the arms ; the 

 head black on the upper part, and whitish on the 

 sides, with a black band down each side of the face, 

 showing some white between it and the naked part ; 

 the legs on the outside, and also the tail, are black ; 

 the itisides of the legs reddish, but produced more by 

 the colour of the skin than by that of the covering, 

 which is very scanty in these parts. Though the 

 country of this species is not perfectly ascertained, 

 there is little doubt that it is a distinct species, 

 because several have been found agreeing so much 

 with each other, and differing so much from any of 

 the other described species, as to leave little doubt 

 that they are distinct. 



Golden-footed Sapajou (C. chryospus). This is 

 a handsome species, though very little is known con- 

 cerning it, and it seems to bear a considerable resem- 

 blance to the white-fronted one already described, 

 like which it is a western animal, being found in 



