THE MONKEY-EATERS. 191 



hat (markets) only for tobacco and salt and to sell 

 our skins." 



On being asked, one or two of the men readily 

 showed us how they hunted monkeys. If the 

 animals could be got into a broken portion 

 of forest, they could be readily captured, as 

 they could be driven from one side into the 

 open ground, where the nets were set. Monkeys 

 always ran away from their pursuers, and never 

 tried to break back. If the forest was con- 

 tinuous there was no use hunting them, as they 

 escaped from tree to tree. If the Behurs hunted 

 them from the ground they might escape in the 

 branches over their heads, but a certain number 

 of their men were always sent up into the trees, 

 which they climbed almost as expertly as the 

 monkeys themselves. The nets are about four 

 feet wide, and of various lengths, and not much 

 stronger than the ordinary fishing-nets. From the 

 intestines of the monkeys they also make a fine 

 gut, which they manufacture into nooses for snaring 

 pea-fowl, jungle-fowl, partridge, etc. 



Their method of catching jungle-fowl is very 

 ingenious. Several tame cocks form part of their 

 stock-in-trade. The early morning is the time 

 chosen for the snaring. A tame cock is fastened 

 by a string attached to its leg to a peg driven 

 in the ground, in the part of the forest selected. 

 Round this is described a complete circle, ten 

 or twelve yards in diameter, the circumference 

 being represented by a thin cord about a foot 

 from the ground, and securely fastened to pegs 



