THE LOWER AMAZONS 



heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the copious 

 Portuguese vocabulary of vituperation. The poor mon- 

 key, quietly seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore 

 trouble at this display of anger. It began by looking 

 earnestly at him, then it whined, and lastly rocked its 

 body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and pass- 

 ing its long, gaunt arms continually over its forehead ; for 

 this was its habit when excited, and the front of the head 

 was worn quite bald in consequence. At length its master 

 altered his tone. ' It's all a lie, my old woman ; you're 

 an angel, a flower, a good affectionate old creature,' and 

 so forth. Immediately the poor monkey ceased its wail- 

 ing, and soon after came over to where the man sat. 

 The disposition of the Coaita is mild in the extreme : it 

 has none of the painful, restless vivacity of its kindred, 

 the Cebi, and no trace of the surly, untameable temper 

 of its still nearer relatives, the Mycetes, or howling 

 monkeys. It is, however, an arrant thief, and shows 

 considerable cunning in pilfering small articles of clothing, 

 which it conceals in its sleeping place. The natives of 

 the Upper Amazons procure the Coaita, when full grown, 

 by shooting it with the blow-pipe and poisoned darts, 

 and restoring life by putting a little salt (the antidote to 

 the Urari poison with which the darts are tipped) in its 

 mouth. The animals thus caught become tam^e forth- 

 with. Two females were once kept at the Jardin des 

 Plantes of Paris, and GeofEroy St. Hilaire relates of them 

 that they rarely quitted each other, remaining most part 

 of the time in close embrace, folding their tails round one 

 another's bodies. They took their meals together ; and 

 it was remarked on such occasions, when the friendship 

 of animals is put to a hard test, that they never quarrelled 

 or disputed the possession of a favourite fruit with each 

 other. 



The neighbourhood of Obydos was rich in insects. In 

 the broad alleys of the forest a magnificent butterfly of 

 the genus Morpho, six to eight inches in expanse, the 

 Morpho Hecuba, was seen daily gliding along at a height 

 of twenty feet or more from the ground. Amongst the 

 lower trees and bushes numerous kinds of Heliconii, a 

 group of butterflies peculiar to tropical America, having 

 long narrow wings, were very abundant. The prevailing 

 ground colour of the wings of these insects is a deep black. 



