MONKEY KIND. 305 



carry on an offensive war, and by their agility 

 escape all possibility of pursuit. Nor have the 

 birds less to fear from their continual depreda- 

 tions ; for, as these harmless inhabitants of the 

 wood usually build upon trees, the monkeys are 

 for ever on the watch to find out and rob their 

 nests ; and such is their petulant delight in mis- 

 chief, that they will fling their eggs against the 

 ground when they want appetite or inclination to 

 devour them. 



There is but one animal in all the forest that 

 ventures to oppose the monkey, and that is the 

 serpent. The larger snakes are often seen wind- 

 ing up the trees where the monkeys reside, and, 

 when they happen to surprise them sleeping, 

 swallow them whole, before the little animals 

 have time to make a defence. In this manner, 

 the two most mischievous kinds in all nature 

 keep the whole forest between them ; both equal- 

 ly formidable to each other, and for ever employ- 

 ed in mutual hostilities. The monkeys in general 

 inhabit the tops of the trees, and the serpents 

 cling to the branches nearer the bottom ; and 

 in this manner they are for ever seen near each 

 other, like enemies in the same field of battle. 

 Some travellers, indeed, have supposed that their 

 vicinity rather argued their mutual friendship, 

 and that they united in this manner to form an 

 offensive league against all the rest of animated 

 nature.* " I have seen these monkeys," says 

 Labat, " playing their gambols .upon those very 



* Labat, Rekt, de 1'Afriq. Occident, p. 317. 

 VOL. III. U 



