I Attend A Howler- Monkeys , 5 Concert, 
217 
Dutchman. He drank his bottle of Rhine wine a day, kept an exquisite 
table and daily observed the same strict regularity: lie got up to the 
miuute and with watch in hand, gave bis cook the time when to put 
the eggs on to boil for breakfast, and similarly when she was to take 
them off and place them on the table : in fact with his watch Mr. Bach 
got out of bed, with his watch lie regulated bis day, and with his watch 
he brought it to a close. I soon got accustomed to this strictly ordered 
way of living and always turned up in time for meals, for it did not 
take me long to learn that those who were late were regarded as non- 
existent. No sooner had 1 become properly schooled than, sad to say, 
a serious inflammatory fever caused a violent upset in this restful life 
under Dutch rule. Though the scorching sunshine and tropical rain 
showers that had so often soaked us through on the expedition might 
have paved the way for the disease, its outbreak was hastened by my own 
thoughtless ardour. 
081. Directly after my arrival there I had heard at times of sunrise 
and sunset the awful screeches of the many howler-monkeys ( Mycetes 
seniculus) proceeding from the virgin forest which in many places 
stretched down to the canal, and yet I never succeeded in locating the 
animals on the many excursions I undertook. As one morning after 
breakfast, with hunting gear in hand, I was making my way to the 
forest and again heard the ghastly shrieking within its depths, my zeal 
became tired for the chase. Without looking to right or left l hurried 
through thick and thin in the direction of the noise. After a good deal 
of exertion and a long search I finally reached the troupe without my 
being noticed. The musical choir, perched ahead of me upon a high 
tree, was conducting a concert cacophonous enough for anyone to believe 
that all the wild animals of the forest were being engaged in a fight to a 
finish, although it is not to be denied that it was governed by a sort 
of harmony: sometimes the company, distributed over the whole tree, 
suddenly ceased their noise as if to a time-beat and sometimes, equally 
unexpectedly, one of the performers would strike up his jarring note 
anew, and the howling commenced afresh. The bony drum of the liyoid- 
bone which by its resonance gives just that mighty strength to the voice, 
could be seen moving up and down during the screeching. There were 
moments when the sound resembled the grunting of a pig, in the next 
second the growl of a jaguar in the act of pouncing on its prey, to change 
soon again into that deep and awful snarling of the same carnivorous 
beast when, surrounded on all sides, it recognises the danger threatening. 
The horrible performance nevertheless had its laughable side and the face 
of the most melancholy misanthrope would momentarily have shewn 
traces of a smile had he seen how stiffly and gravely these long-bearded 
concertists regarded each oilier. Mr. Bach had told me that every troupe 
has its own precentor, which is distinguished from all the deep bass- 
singers not only by its high shrill note but also by a much slenderer and 
slimmer figure. T found the first part of tin 1 statement absolutely 
confirmed here, but as to the second T searched in vain for the line and 
slender figure, though, instead of that I noticed upon the next tree two 
silent individuals which T took to be sentinels on guard: if that were the 
