76 OVEE TIJE MOUNTAINS TO THE LLANOS. 



perior force ; and now you liear his last dying moan be- 

 neath a mortal wound." 



There is, perhaps, no animal that possesses a greater 

 interest than the monkey. It has been the subject of 

 countless nursery-tales, and a fruitless source of fiction, 

 arising from that inherent propensity so characteristic of 

 human nature for making what is marvellous appear still 

 more so. The oft-repeated story, familiar to every boy, 

 and which finds credence among so many, of monkeys 

 crossing sti*eams on aerial bridges, constructed from their 

 own bodies, exists only in fancy. Travellers to South 

 America have often referred to it as one of the astonish- 

 ing feats of these animals. In the course of our travels 

 in the tropics, during which we saw multitudes of these 

 creatures, our observations convinced us that there was 

 no foundation for the truth of the tale of the bridge-build- 

 ing monkeys ; and in this belief we were, moreover, fur- 

 ther confirmed by the statement of the natives, who tes- 

 tified to their having never witnessed such a novel per- 

 formance. Humboldt also says that five years' observa- 

 tions of these animals led him to place no confidence in 

 the statements respecting these monkey-bridges. 



Returning to our canoe from our ramble in the forest, 

 we found in waiting a smoking breakfast of saficocho, the 

 national dish of the Venezuelian — a concoction of beef, 

 yuca, bananas, peppers, garlics, and annatto * for a color- 

 ing principle. Our energetic Viviano had also been on a 

 foraging expedition with Angel, the small boy, to a house 

 upon the opposite bank, and returned with plenty of milk, 



* Annatto is the product of a shrub {Bixa ordlana) ten or twelve 

 feet in height, with a foliage resembling our common lilac. The bu«h 

 bears a prickly bur, like the chestnut, only smaller, that contains the 

 seeds from which the coloring substance is obtained. It grows wild 

 throughout Venezuela, and is extensively cultivated in Brazil, constitut- 

 ing one of the exports from that country. 



