278 Animal Life 
and he feels assured that you do not mean to harm him, he springs to some point 
from which he can get a fair view, and begins to chatter with all the energy of an 
auctioneer. 
One quiet afternoon I was passing along a beautiful stretch of river, admirimg the 
gorgeous scenery and contemplating the wonders of that enchanted land. The native 
boys in the canoe were half asleep, and the paddles scarcely broke the surface of the 
water. At leneth my headman whispered: ‘ Otangani ojena sinkemi sinyengi,’”’ meaning 
=) ° . . . . Ory i} 
“White man, look, plenty of monkeys!” JI glanced in the direction indicated, and 
) ) y WA fo) 2 
there, perched upon the overhanging boughs, I saw a school of more than a dozen 
cephas monkeys quietly looking down at us. I told the boys to be still and not 
raise a paddle. Slowly the canoe drifted along until we came directly under the 
tree. I was reclining in such a posture as to see the monkeys quite as well as they 
could see me. Not one of them stirred, but all gazed in perfect silence at the canoe 
and its occupants. 
When we had passed about a hundred yards below them I heard a sound uttered 
by one of them, which was doubtless the leader, and in an instant they disappeared. 
My headman then said: ‘Master, those monkeys know you, and we shall soon see 
them again.” 
“Know me?” I enquired in surprise, “how do they know me?” 
“That is the same family that comes to the small bush near the village, and 
they know you because you feed them.” 
“How do you know they are the same ones?” I asked, for I really did not 
recognise them as the same. 
“T have known them since I was a boy,” he replied. 
“But,” said I, “they are not as old as you are. Monkeys don’t live to be as 
old as men do.” 
“No,” he replied, “but all of them don’t die at the same time, and when one 
dies and another one is born, they go on just like people do. My great father knew 
some of these families, and while they are not the same monkeys they are their children 
and grandchildren, and they still live in the same groups as their fathers did.” 
This was a new idea of the social life of monkeys, and I began to ponder it. 
Within a few minutes he again whispered, “See! see! there they are.” 
Again I looked as he pointed, 
and there I saw the monkeys, taking 
their place on the boughs of a large 
tree two hundred yards ahead of us. 
Again the paddles were laid aside 
and we drifted down to them. When 
within some twenty yards I could 
see that they were less timid than 
before, and as I neared them the 
big leader uttered his peculiar sound 
of “ food.” 
With my best efforts at imita- 
tion I answered with the same 
sound, and every one of them set 
up the cry and began to shift 
\ 
From a Sketch by the Author. about as though they were pre-’ 
KANJO NYTIGO, OR CHIMPANZEE DANCE. paring to climb down to the canoe. 
This picture represents a remarkable social carnival, and shows some I had no food of any kind to 
of these apes beating an improvised drum, while the others “dance’’ offer them, aiaal I really felt guilty 
yound uttering long rolling sounds as if trying to sing. 
