144 



MONKEY HUNTING. 



river-side, making a noise like the grunting of a herd of enraged hogs. 

 "VVe landed, and in a few minutes I found myself beating my way 

 through the thick undergrowth, and hunting monkeys with as much 

 excitement as I had ever hunted squirrels when a boy. I had no balls 

 with me, and my No. 3 shot only served to sting them from their 

 elevated position in the tops of the trees, and bring them within reach 

 of the pucunas of the Indians. They got two and I one, after firing 

 about a dozen shots into him. I never saw animals so tenacious of 

 life ; this one was, as the Indians expressed it, bathed in shot, (bafiado 

 en munition.) These monkeys were about the size of a common ter- 

 rier-dog, and were clad with a long, soft, maroon-colored hair; they 

 are called cotomonos, from a large goitre (coto) under the jaw. This is 

 an apparatus of thin bone in the wind-pipe, by means of which 

 they make their peculiar noise. The male, called curaca, (which 

 is also the appellation of the chief of a tribe of Indians,) has a long 

 red beard. They are called guariba in Brazil, where they are said 

 to be black as well as red; and I believe they are of the species 

 commonly called howling monkeys. 



It is scarcely worth while to say that the Indians use parts of this 

 animal for the cure of diseases, for I know no substance that could 

 possibly be used as a remedial agent that they do not use for that 

 purpose. The mother carries the young upon her back until it is able 

 to go alone. If the dam dies, the sire takes charge. There are vast 

 numbers in all the course of the river, and no day passes to the traveller 

 that they are not heard or seen. 



When I arrived at the beach with my game, I found that the Indians 

 had made a fire and were roasting theirs. They did not take the trouble 

 to skin and clean the animal, but simply put him in the fire, and, when 

 well scorched, took him off and cut pieces from the fleshy parts with a 

 knife ; if these were not sufficiently well done, they roasted them farther 

 on little stakes stuck up before the fire. I tried to eat a piece, but it 

 was so tough that my teeth would make no impression upon it. The 

 one I killed was enceinte ; the foetus about double the size of a wharf- 

 rat. I wished to preserve it, but it was too large for any bottles I had ; 

 whereupon the Indians roasted and ate it without ceremony. 



We also saw to-day several river hogs, and had an animated chase 

 after one, which we encountered on the river-side, immediately opposite 

 a nearly precipitous bank of loose earth, which crumbled under his feet 

 so that he could not climb it. He hesitated to take the water in face of 

 the canoes, so that we thought we had him ; but after a little play up 

 and down the river-side, he broke his way through the line of his ad- 



