Other Times, other Manners. 251 



of this — animal we were going to say, but we know not 

 with what propriety we could apply the epithet — the 

 beholders will judge the case ; — but for ourselves we 

 were never so amazed in our lives as at the sight of such 

 symmetry and perfe6lion, far excelling in beauty of fea- 

 ture — however much our self-love may suffer in compari- 

 son—the inhabitants of a great part of the globe. 

 VERY INTERESTING TO NATURALISTS. 

 The Indians in the interior of Guiana will tell you 

 that far to the north-west there is a nation of men with 

 tails ; they are a cruel and malicious race and inhabit 

 the highest trees. Any person of common information 

 in natural history would of course conclude that these 

 men the Indians speak of are nothing but a large kind 

 of monkey. I had often a wish to go and shoot one of 

 these animals, but it was no easy matter to persuade an 

 Indian to shew me the place where they were to be found. 

 The Indians said that if they killed one its nation would 

 take ample vengeance on them, by despatching him who 

 had committed the crime, and by visiting the rest of his 

 family with sickness, with the horrors, and with death. 

 At last, for a considerable reward, I persuaded an Indian 

 to be my guide to these terrible and curious animals. 

 The weather was remarkably fine, and we set off through 

 the gloomy wilds to the south-west. I carried an air-gun 

 and a dagger, and the Indian had his bow and poisoned 

 arrows, and was provided with provisions for two weeks. 

 After a long and dreary march we came to a place where 

 the trees were immensely high. There the Indian made 

 a dead stop, and declared that he would go no further, 

 for he was sure that the men with the tails were not far 

 off ; his countenance fell, and he kept saying every now 



