COAITIA HUNT 



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American sub-order. The want of the thumb, therefore, 

 is not a sign of near relationship between the Colobi and 

 the Coaitas, but is a mere analogical character, which 

 must have originated, in each case, through independent, 

 although perhaps similar, causes. One species of Coaita 

 has a rudiment of thumb, without a nail. The flesh of 

 this monkey is much esteemed by the natives in this part 

 of the country, and the Military Commandant of Obydos, 

 Major Gama, every week sent a negro hunter to shoot 

 one for his table. One day I went on a Coaita hunt, 

 borrowing a negro slave of a friend to show me the way. 

 On the road I was much amused by the conversation of 

 my companion. He was a tall, handsome negro, about 

 forty years of age, with a staid, courteous demeanour 

 and a deliberate manner of speaking. Strangely enough 

 in a negro, he was a total abstainer from liquors and to- 

 bacco. He told me he was a native of Congo, and the 

 son of a great chief or king. He narrated the events 

 of a great battle between his father's and some other 

 tribe, in which he was taken prisoner and sold to the 

 Portuguese slave-dealers. When in the deepest part of 

 the ravine we heard a rustling sound in the trees over- 

 head, and Manoel soon pointed out a Coaita to me. 

 There was something human-like in its appearance, as 

 the lean, dark, shaggy creature moved deliberately 

 amongst the branches at a great height. I fired, but 

 unfortunately only wounded it in the belly. It fell with 

 a crash headlong about twenty or thirty feet, and then 

 caught a bough with its tail, which grasped it instantane- 

 ously, and then the animal remained suspended in mid- 

 air. Before I could reload it recovered itself, and mounted 

 nimbly to the topmost branches out of the reach of a 

 fowling-piece, where we could perceive the poor thing 

 apparently probing the wound with its fingers. Coaitas 

 are more frequently kept in a tame state than any other 

 kind of monkey. The Indians are very fond of them as 

 pets, and the women often suckle them when young at 

 their breasts. They become attached to their masters, 

 and will sometimes follow them on the ground to con- 

 siderable distances. I once saw a most ridiculously 

 tame Coaita. It was an old female, which accompanied 

 its owner, a trader on the river, in all his voyages. By 

 way of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feeling, 

 its master set to and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, 



