PREACHING MONKEY. 649 



SECTION II. 



Preacher Monkey. 

 Simia Beelzebub. Linn* 



The size of this animal is that of a fox; with black shining eyes, 

 short round ears, and round beard : hair on the body shining black, 

 long, yet so close that the animal appears quite smooth ; feet and 

 end of the tail brown ; tail very long, and always twisted at the 

 end. 



Singular as the name preacher, applied to a species of monkeys, 

 may appear, their history is no less so ; and were it not supported by 

 good authority, it would seem quite fabulous. Several other authors 

 corroborate the evidence of Marcgraave, a writer of the first autho- 

 rity, and a most able naturalist, who resided long in the Brazils 

 where these creatures abound. He speaks from his own knowledge, 

 and tells us, that morning and evening they assemble in the woods ; 

 that one mounts on a higher branch, while the rest seat themselves 

 beneath ; that when he perceives them all seated, he begins, as if it 

 were to harangue, and sets up so loud and sharp a howl that a per- 

 son at a distance would think a hundred joined in the cry ; the rest, 

 however, keep the most profound silence, till he stops and gives a 

 signal with his hand ; then, in an instant the whole assembly join in 

 chorus, till he commands silence by another siguai, which they obey 

 in a moment ; then the orator resumes his discourse, and finishes 

 his address, and the assembly breaks up. Their clamour is the 

 most disagreeable and tremendous that can be conceived ; this 

 faculty proceeds from the peculiar conformation of a hollow and 

 hard bone placed in the throat, and called the throat bone or os 

 hyoides. These monkeys are very fierce, quite untameable, and 

 bite dreadfully ; though not carnivorous, they excite terror by their 

 frightful voice and ferocious aspect. The female is of the same 

 colour with the male, and differs from him only in being smaller ; 

 the females carry their young on their back, and leap with them 

 from branch to branch, and from tree to tree ; the young embrace, 

 with their hands and arms, the body of the mother, and remain 

 firmly fixed as long as she is in motion 5 when she wants to suckle, 

 she takes the young in her paws and presents the breast to it, like a 

 human wet nurse. There is no method of obtaining the young one, 



