THE CHEMECK. 449 



water. Trusting to the muscular power of their tails and 

 limbs, tliey appear in no way davnited. The monkeys whicli 

 have liitheito formed the lower links of the chain, still hold- 

 ing on by their tails to their friends, work their way up the 

 trunk and along a branch of equal or greater height than 

 that on the opposite side, to which the long-enduring Hercules 

 has hitherto clung. On their attaining the point selected, he 

 at length unwinds his tail, and swings downwards — with a 

 force which seems sufficient to dislocate the limbs of those 

 holding on above — and now becomes the lowest in the line. 

 The force with which he has descended enables him to swing 

 towards the side which his comrades have reached, and to 

 grasp the trunk, up which he also climbs, till his neighbour 

 can catch hold of it. He follows his example, till all, one 

 after the other, have grasped it : and thus they perform an 

 operation which the most renowned of human athletes would 

 find it difficult to imitate. 



A troop will cross a gap in the forest in the same wa}^, 

 rather than venture down from the leafy heights they find it 

 safest to occupy. When compelled to descend to the ground, 

 they scuttle over it in the most awkward manner — their long 

 limbs straggling out, and their tails in vain seeking some 

 object to grasp. On these occasions the spider-monkey turns 

 its hind-feet inwards, and thus walks on the outer sides, 

 while the fore-paws are twisted outward ; thus throwing the 

 whole of its weight upon their inner edges. It is when thus 

 seen tliat the appropriateness of the name given to it is more 

 especially observed. When hard-pressed, however, the know- 

 ing little animal, finding no bough round which to coil its tail, 

 rears itself up on its hind-limbs, and balances itself by curl- 

 ing up its tail in the form of the letter 8, as high as its head ; 



(379) 29 



