THE MONKE Y FAMIL F. 161 



turer's house by the curate and the barber, when these sagacious 

 inspectors committed to the devouring flames sundry romances 

 which deserved no better fate. 



So much for the supposed reasoning qualities the bravery, the 

 knavery, the trickery, and generosity of apes, which are found in the 

 Old World. Should these narratives of former voyages be true, and 

 should modern travellers add a few more facts to those already re- 

 corded, I do not see why we should not at once acknowledge these 

 talented wild men of the woods as members of our own family, and 

 pronounce them to be human beings. It would be an interesting 

 sight to see them going hand in hand with us through the meander- 

 ing walks of civilised life. How delighted I should be to observe 

 our Prime Minister walking soberly along the streets of London to- 

 wards the House of Commons, on important business, in company 

 with an old strapping ape from the far distant wilds of Sumatra ! 

 " Nil mortalibus arduum est." 



If, we cross the Atlantic Ocean to the New World, we shall find 

 no apes there, as I have already stated. But we shall fall in with a 

 monkey or two, if we can believe the tales of travellers, still more 

 highly gifted by nature, and even surpassing in useful acquirements 

 every ape as yet discovered in the extensive tropical regions of the 

 old continent. 



A traveller in Southern America relates, that every morning and 

 evening the monkeys, named ouarines, assemble in the woods; that 

 one of them takes an elevated station, and gives a signal with his 

 hand for the others to sit around and listen to him ; that, when he 

 perceives them to be all seated, he begins a discourse in a tone so 

 loud and rapid as to be heard at a great distance, and a person 

 would be led to think that the whole were crying together ; that all 

 the rest, however, keep the most profound silence ; that, when he 

 stops he gives a signal, which they obey in a moment ; that the first 

 resumes his discourse or song; and that, after hearing him attentively 

 for a considerable time, the assembly breaks up. This precious 

 morsel of monkey-preaching seems to have been too bulky for our 

 author to swallow ; so he remarks that, " perhaps these facts may 

 be exaggerated and seasoned a little with the marvellous." Still the 

 explorer himself assures us that he has often witnessed these facts. 



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