THE SPIDER MONKEY. 121 



Unlike most of the race, spider monkeys are 

 fond of standing erect, and I often saw her walk- 

 ing about with tail held above her head, the 

 tip curled over like the end of a letter S. I 

 think I never saw anything more funny than 

 Gila (whose name was pronounced Heela) walk- 

 ing down the garden path, swinging a tin pail 

 in a business-like manner, as a workman carries 

 a dinner-pail. 



Gila was a very pretty creature. She was 

 more than two feet tall, and weighed twelve 

 pounds, which is quite heavy for one of her 

 family. Her dress was a suit of long, light- 

 yellow hair, lighter than many of her kind, and, 

 after a few weeks' care and combing, it became 

 beautifully soft and silky. Her face and hands 

 were black, and her knees and feet. The skin 

 inside her long tail was also a satiny black. 

 With this most useful tail she could not only 

 hang from a branch, but could hold objects. 

 Whenever she snatched anything and ran away 

 with it, which I regret to say was a favorite 

 trick, she did it with her tail ; though, when she 

 sat down to look at her prize closely, she took it 

 in her hand. Once, when not in the best of 

 humor, she was passing the table spread for 

 dinner, on her way to be chained up. With 

 that too-handy tail she swept it clean, dishes 

 and all, in one complete wreck. 



