ANIMALS. 429 



sion of every forest where they reside, and may be considered as 

 tUe masters of the place. Neither the tiger, nor the lion itself, 

 will venture to dispute the dominion, since these, from the tops 

 of trees, continually carry on offensive war, and by their agility 

 escape all possibility of pursuit. Nor have the birds less to fear 

 Irom their continual depredations ; for, as these harmless inha 

 bitants 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 mischief, 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 op- 

 pose the monkey, and that is the sequent. The larger snakes 

 are often seen winding up the trees where the monkeys reside ; 

 and, when they happen to surprise them sleeping, swallow 

 them whole, before the litcle animals have time to make a de- 

 fence. In this manner, the two most mischievous kinds in all 

 nature keep the whole forest between them; both equally formi- 

 dable to each other, and for ever employed in mutual hostilities. 

 The monkeys in general, inhabit the tops of trees, and the ser- 

 pents cling to the branches nearer the bottom, and in this man- 

 ner 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 branches 

 on which the snakes were reposing, and jumping over them with- 

 out receiving any injury, although the serpents of that country 

 were naturally vindictive, and always ready to bite whatever dis- 

 turbed them. These gambols, however, were probably nothing 

 more than the insults of an enemy that was conscious of its own 

 safety ; and the monkeys might have provoked the snake in the 

 same manner as we often see sparrows twitter at a cat. How- 

 ever this be, the forest is generally divided between them ; and 

 these woods, which nature seems to have embellished with her 

 richest magnificence, rather inspire tenor than delight, and chiefly 

 serve as retreats for mischief and malignity. 



1 Labat. Relat. de I'Afriq. Occident, p 31& 



