66 THE MONKEY TRIBE 



insects, which kept me awake until just before the dawn, 

 when I fell asleep in my chair on the deck. Suddenly I 

 felt a rough blow on my face, and became wide awake. 

 I saw hanging from a tree, and swinging into the gloom, 

 something that looked like a huge black rope. The end of 

 it had struck me. In a moment back it came, swinging this 

 time behind the vessel. 



' The rope gave forth a chattering noise ; it was alive. 

 A moment more, and it was clear to me that here was a 

 company of monkeys trying to cross the 

 stream. The sight was so novel, the plan 

 so daring, that at once I gave these queer 

 bridge-makers my closest attention. 



' They were hanging from a tall palm- 

 tree that leaned out over the water ; there 

 was a line thirty feet long, and three or 

 four monkeys deep, holding on to each 

 other as if the fate of the monkey race 

 depended upon them. 



* Little by little the breathing, clinging 

 pendulum kept gaining. Very soon it 

 swung out so far that the leader caught 

 a branch of a tree on the opposite bank, 

 when, lo ! there was a bridge in mid-air. 

 At once there rose from all the line a 

 chattering that must have been monkey 

 cheers. 



' Without further ado the bridge was 

 opened to the monkey public, and out 

 of the palm-tree came a noisy crowd of 

 all ages. They ran across the bridge as best they could, 

 some on all fours, some upright, some with young mon- 

 keys on their backs, and all waving their tails and briskly 

 jabbering. 



' The last one to cross was evidently a patriarch of the 

 colony, for he picked his way along so slowly and nervously 

 that I could not help laughing outright. Hearing so un- 

 usual a noise, the monkeys that were clinging to the palm 

 did not wait for him, but let go and swung over to the 

 other side. The old fellow narrowly escaped a ducking. 



