SAPAJOUS. 149 



r 



nessed towards the source of the Orinoco, but which is unknown on the banks of the 

 larger rivers. The noises of animals began just as the sun sank beneath the trees 

 after a sweltering afternoon, leaving the sky above of the intensest shade of blue. 

 Two flocks of howling monkeys, one close to our canoe, the other about a furlong 

 distant, filled the echoing forest with their dismal roaring." 



\\V have already mentioned the circumstance that a European traveller on one 

 occasion supped on roast baboon ; and we may here call attention to the fact that 

 in Humboldt's time monkey-flesh formed a by no means inconsiderable portion of 

 the food of the natives of certain parts of South America, at least on particular 

 occasions. Humboldt tells us that when his party was travelling in Ecuador, and 

 had arrived at Esmeraldas, they found a native festival in progress. And in the 

 room where the feast was held they observed numbers of large roasted monkeys (of 

 what species we are not informed), blackened by smoke, and arranged round the 

 walls. These monkeys were bent into a sitting posture, with the head generally 

 resting on the long and skinny arms, and had been roasted by being placed on a 

 grating of very hard wood over a clear fire. Humboldt observes that on seeing 

 the natives devouring an arm or leg of one of these roasted monkeys, it was 

 difficult not to believe that this habit of eating animals so closely resembling man 

 in their physical organisation, had, to a certain degree, contributed to diminish 

 among these people the horror of cannibalism. 



THE SAPAJOUS, OR CAPUCHIN MONKEYS. 

 Genus Cebus. 



The long and prehensile-tailed monkeys so commonly seen in menageries, and 

 known respectively as sapajous or capuchin monkeys, and spider-monkeys, may be 

 regarded as the typical representatives of the family Cebidce ; and, together with 

 two other genera, constitute a group which can be easily recognised, and as easily 

 distinguished from all their cousins. With the exception of the howlers, of which 

 more anon, this group of monkeys is indeed the only one furnished with prehensile 

 tails ; and, altogether apart from the question of voice, and the presence of certain 

 structures connected therewith, all its members differ from the howlers by their 

 rounded heads, and the nearly vertical plane of the face. 



The sapajous may at once be distinguished from the three other genera 

 included in this group by the circumstance that their tails, which are comparatively 

 stout and of only moderate length, have no naked part on the lower surface of the 

 extremity. In this respect they are not so perfectly adapted for the purpose of 

 prehension as are those of the other genera. Another feature of these monkeys is 

 that the hair does not partake of a woolly nature ; while the general build of the 

 body is rather stout ; the arms and legs according in this respect with the body, 

 not being excessively long nor excessively slender. 



The native name of these monkeys on the Amazon is Caiarara, or " macaw- 

 headed," the word Arara meaning a macaw. It seems, however, that Caiarara is 

 abbreviated frequently into 'Cai, and from the latter it appears that the name 



