224 



THE MONKEY FAMILY. 



the level of the sea, at which height it is devoid of any life owing to the fierce- 

 ness of the active elements and the perpetual snow, although three degree:; 



From photograph. MOUNT Kilimanjaro. 



south of the equator. Another illustration represents five picked beauties of 

 the inhabitants of the dense forests at the foot of the same mountain. The 

 native members of Roosevelt's safari told him that these girls are given in 

 marriage for two good milking cows and several jars of native beer made 

 out of bananas, and wherewith the wedding is celebrated. "In our country," 

 one of the bearers said, "a young man's pride is in having many wives — for 

 they represent his wealth which they produce by working for him from sun- 

 rise to sundown." 



It is in close proximity of these children of nature that the colobus monkeys 

 are living. They can be seen feeding in the morning and evening, stripping 

 the twigs of their leaves with their thumbless hands, eating greedily, and 

 bellowing all the time. They are arboreal in their habits, living in small 

 troops in the tops of gigantic trees, preferring those which are overgrown 

 with beardgrass, the whitish-grey color of which blends with the fur of the 

 monkeys. When the colobus jumps from branch to branch and from tree- 

 top to treetop, extending the long, white tail and spreading the hair of the 



