' FOUR-HANDED FOLKS. 385 



where we lay. Presently they appeared on the opposite 

 bank, headed by an old gray chieftain, and officered like so 

 many soldiers. They were, as Raoul had stated, of the 

 ring-tailed tribe. One — an aide-de-camp, or chief pioneer, 

 perhaps — ran out upon a projecting rock, and, after looking 

 across the stream, as if calculating the distance, scampered 

 back, and appeared to communicate with the leader. This 

 produced a movement in the troop. Commands were is- 

 sued, and fatigue parties were detailed and marched to the 

 front. Meanwhile, several of them — engineers, no doubt — 

 ran along the bank, examining the trees on both sides of 

 the stream. 



2. At length they all collected round a tall cotton-wood 

 that grew over the narrowest part of the stream, and twenty 

 or thirty of them scampered up its trunk. On reaching a 

 high point, the foremost— a strong fellow— ran out upon a 

 limb, and, taking several turns of his tail around it, slipped 

 off and hung head downward. The next on the limb, also 

 a stout one, climbed down the body of the first, and, whip- 

 ping his tail tightly round the neck and forearm of the 

 latter, dropped off in his turn and hung head down. The 

 third repeated the manoeuvre upon the second, and the 

 fourth upon the third, and so on, until the last upon the 

 string rested his fore paws on the ground. 



3. The living chain now commenced swinging back- 

 ward and forward, like the pendulum of a clock. The mo- 

 tion was slight at first, but gradually increased, the lower- 

 most monkey striking his hands violently on the earth as 

 he passed the tangent of the oscillating curve. Several 

 others upon the limbs above aided the movement. This 

 continued until the monkey at the end of the chain was 

 thrown among the branches of a tree on the opposite bank. 

 Here, after two or three vibrations, he clutched a limb and 

 held fast. This movement was executed adroitly, just at 

 the culminating point of the oscillation, in order to save 



