FLESH FOOD FROM MAMMALS. 55 



which they had arrived at being cannibals ; they say the 

 flesh is delicious." 



But it is in Brazil, especially in the valley of the 

 Amazon, that they are most eaten, for the animals found 

 in the greatest numbers there are the monkeys. 



Monkeys are said to be publicly sold in the markets of 

 Rio Janeiro. 



The barrigudo {Lagothrix Sumboldti, Geoff.) is much 

 persecuted by the Indians, on account of the excellence 

 of its flesh as food. From information given to Mr. 

 Bates he calculated that one troop of these Indians, 

 numbering about 200, destroyed 1,200 monkeys a year 

 for food. 



Mr. Wallace tells us that having often heard how good 

 monkey was, he had one cut up and fried for breakfast. 

 He found the meat somewhat resembled rabbit, without 

 any peculiar or unpleasant flavour. My friend, the late 

 Sir Robert Schomburgk, told me that when travelling in 

 the interior of Guiana he had often tasted the smaller 

 kinds of monkeys, but could never bring himself to par- 

 take of the great. spider monkey (Ateles sp.) and others 

 eaten by the Indians, which approach so nearly to the 

 human form. 



It is a remarkable circumstance that among the 

 South American Indians, monkeys are much more fre- 

 quently used as food than among the inhabitants of the 

 Old World, and on the Orinoco the broiled limbs of the 

 marimonda (Ateles Selzebub, Geoffi-oy) was frequently 

 seen by Humboldt in the huts of the natives ; and at 

 Emeralda he examined roasted and dried bodies in an 

 Indian hut, which were prepared for an annual harvest 

 fete. 



Roasted monkeys, particularly those that have a round 

 head, display a hideous resemblance to a child; the 

 Europeans, therefore, who are obliged to feed on them, 

 prefer separating the head and hands, and serve only the 

 rest of the animal at their tables. 



It is not at all improbable, from the close resemblance 

 of a monkey, with the hair removed and ready to be 



