408 



ANIMALS OF 



light, and chiefly serve as retreats for mischief 

 and malignity. 



The enmity of these animals to mankind, 

 is partly ridiculous, and partly formidable. 

 They seem, says Le Comte and others, to 

 have a peculiar instinct in discovering their 

 foes, and are perfectly skilled, when attacked, 

 in mutually defending and assisting each 

 other. When a traveller enters among these 

 woods, they consider him as an invader 

 uporr their dominions, and all join to repel 

 the intrusion. At first they .survey him with 

 a kind of insolent curiosity. They jump from 

 branch to branch, pursue him as he goes 

 along, and make a loud chattering, to call 

 the rest of their companions together. They 

 then begin their hostilities, by grinning, 

 threatening, and flinging down the withered 

 branches at him, which they break from the 

 trees ; they even take their excrements in 

 their hands, and throw them at his head. 

 Thus they attend him wherever he goes; 

 jumping from tree to tree with such amazing 

 swiftness, that the eye can scarcely attend 

 their motions. Although they take the most 

 desperate leaps, yet they are seldom seen to 

 come to the ground, for they easily fasten 

 upon the branches that break their fall, and 

 stick, either by their hands, feet, or tail, 

 wherever they touch. If one of them happens 

 to be wounded, the rest assemble round, and 

 clap their fingers into the wound, as if they 

 were desirous of sounding its depth. If the 

 blood flows in any quantity, some of them 

 keep it shut up, while others get leaves, 

 which they chew, and thrust into the open- 

 ing : however extraordinary this may appear, 

 it is asserted to be often seen, and to be strict- 

 ly true. In this manner they wage a petulant, 

 unequal war; and are often killed in num- 

 bers before they think proper to make a re- 

 treat. This they effect with the same preci- 

 pitation with which they at first came together. 

 In this retreat the young are seen clinging to 

 the back of the female, with which she jumps 

 away ,seemingly unembarrassed by the burden. 



The curiosity of the Europeans has, in 

 some measure, induced the natives of the 

 places where these animals reside, to catch or 

 take them alive by every art they are able. 

 The \is\i'\l way in such case, is to shoot the fe- 

 male as she carries her voun<r,and then both,of 



course, tumble to the ground. But even this 

 is not easily performed; for if the animal be 

 not killed outright, it will not fall; but cling- 

 ing to some branch, continues, even when 

 dead, its former grasp, and remains on the 

 tree where it was shot, until it drops oflT by 

 putrefaction : in this manner it is totally lost 

 to the pursuer ; for to attempt climbing the 

 tree, to bring either it or the young one down, 

 would probably be fatal, from the number of 

 serpents that are hid among the branches. 

 For this reason the sportsman always takes 

 care to aim at the head ; which, if he hits, 

 the monkey falls directly to the ground ; and 

 the young one comes down at the same time, 

 clinging to its dead parent. 



The Europeans along the coasts of Guinea 

 often go into the woods to shoot monkeys ; 

 and nothing pleases the negroes more than 

 to see these animals drop, against which they 

 have the greatest animosity. They consider 

 them, and not without reason, as the most 

 mischievous and tormenting creatures in the 

 world ; and are happy to see their numbers 

 destroyed, upon a double account ; as well 

 because they dread their devastations, as be- 

 cause they love their flesh. The monkey, 

 which is always skinned before it is eaten, 

 when served up at a negro feast, looks so 

 like a child, that an European is shocked at 

 the very sight. The natives, however, who 

 are not so nice, devour it as one of the highest 

 delicacies; and assiduously attend our sports- 

 men, to profit by the spoil. But what they 

 are chiefly astonished at, is to see our travel- 

 lers carefully taking the young ones alive, 

 while they leave them the old ones, that are 

 certainly the most fit to be eaten. They can- 

 not comprehend what advantage can arise to 

 us from educating or keeping a little animal, 

 that, by experience, they know to be equally 

 fraught with tricks and mischief: some of 

 them have even been led to suppose, that, 

 with a kind of perverse affection, we love 

 only creatures of the most mischievous kinds: 

 and having seen us often buy young and tame 

 monkeys, they have taken equal care to bring 

 rats to our factors, offering them for sale, and 

 greatly disappointed at finding no purchaser 

 for so hopeful a commodity." 



Labat, Relat. de 1'Afriq. Occident, p. 317- 



