THE HOWLING MONKEYS. 105 



of all acridity, and of an agreeable and balmy smell. 

 The travellers drank considerable quantities of it in the 

 evening before they went to bed, and very early in the 

 morning, without feeling the least injurious effect. The 

 negroes and the free people who worked in the planta- 

 tions drank it, dipping into it their bread of maize or 

 cassava. The overseer of the farm told Humboldt that 

 the negroes grew sensibly fatter during the season when 

 it furnished them with most milk. It was at the rising 

 of the sun that this vegetable fountain was most abun- 

 dant. The negroes and natives were then seen hasten- 

 ing from all quarters, furnished with large bowls to re- 

 ceive the milk, which grew yellow, and thickened at 

 its surface. Some emptied their bowls under the tree 

 itself, others carried the juice home to their children. 



They left the valleys of Aragua at sunrise on the 

 6th of March. They were never weary of admiring the 

 fertility of the soil, covered with calabashes, water- 

 melons, and plantains. The rising of the sun was an- 

 nounced by the distant noise of the howling monkeys. 

 Approaching a group of trees, they saw numerous bands 

 of these monkeys moving as in procession and very 

 slowly, from one tree to another. A male was followed 

 by a great number of females, several of the latter carry- 

 ing their young on their shoulders. The howling mon- 

 keys, which live in society in different parts of America, 

 everywhere resemble each other in their manners, though 

 the species are not always the same. The uniformity 

 with which they perform their movements is extremely 

 striking. Whenever the branches of neighbouring trees 

 do not touch each other, the male who leads the party 

 suspends himself by the callous and prehensile part of 



