THE OUARINE, OR PREACHER. 213 



Surgical operation. 



most desperate leaps, they seldom fell to the 

 ground, because they never missed catching 

 hold of the branches either with their hands or 

 tail. This rendered it very difficult to take them, 

 even after they were shot,, unless killed outright; 

 for even when mortally wounded, they remain 

 fixed to the trees, where they often die, and from 

 whence they do not fall till they are putrified. 

 I have seen them hang in this manner for four 

 days after death; and fifteen or sixteen of them 

 are frequently shot before three or four can be 

 obtained. What appeared still more singular, 

 as soon as one was wounded, the rest assembled 

 about him, and put their fingers into the wound, 

 as if desirous of sounding its depth : and if the 

 blood happened to flow in any quantity, some of 

 them kept the orifice shut, while others chewed 

 a number of leaves, and dexterously stopped it 

 up. This operation I have often observed with 

 much admiration." 



These monkeys usually keep together in par- 

 ties of twenty or thirty, and ramble over the tops 

 of the woods, leaping occasionally from tree to 

 tree ; and if they see a person alone, they invari- 

 ably teaze and menace him; as was experienced 

 by Dam pier in the vicinity of the Bay of Cam- 

 peachy. " There was," says that traveller, " a 

 proat company dancing from tree to tree over 

 my head, chattering and making a terrible noise, 

 and a great many grimaces and antic gestures. 



