First Aid on a Monkey. 
m 
perched upon the lowest limbs of a tree ahead of us; they were just 
drumming their welcome to the dawn. As quick as thought we up with 
our guns but waited in vain for the report — the night dew had damped 
the loading and the birds did not wait for us to refill. A gradually 
increasing chatter in the branches betrayed the approach of a troupe of 
monkeys taking the high road over our heads, and pressed close to a tree 
we lay in wait. First came the advance forces, and then the main army 
which took perhaps a quarter of an hour to pass ; this was followed by 
the rear-guard which, through my laughter that could no longer be 
suppressed, scattered in all directions. But who could help laughing if 
he saw the sprightliness of the nimble creatures skipping along over the 
branches in exaggerated haste, and heard the crying, the piping, and 
the whistling of the weaker ones, or noted the malicious looks these threw 
at the stronger specimens which had bitten or beaten them for getting in 
their way ; if he watched the precocious faces of the youngsters regularly 
glued on to their mothers’ backs and at the same time observed how 
earnestly they searched for insects on every leaf, in every crevice, as they 
passed along, and noted how cleverly a flying beetle, or a butterfly would 
here and there be caught upon the wing? It was with antics such as 
these that some 4 to 500 Cebus capaciuiis and C. apella must have hurried 
past up above us, for they did not seem to understand any other kind of 
motion at all, before I could restrain my risible instincts any longer. As 
if thunder struck, as if held by magic, the individuals that happened to 
be directly over our heads sat stock-still for a moment, uttered a peculiar 
cry that found its echo in front, behind, and close by, and then looked 
anxiously around in all directions until, on recognising our presence, they 
stared at us for a second, repeated their cry still more shrilly than at 
first, and in redoubled haste regularly sprang away, without any other 
sound being heard than the extra clattering in the branches. If we 
wanted to take at least a hunting trophy back to the boats, it was now the 
best time to shoot. With the heartrending screams of one with its front 
paw smashed by small shot, and of another that was mortally wounded, 
several indeed of those that had made their escape returned; upon 
noticing us, however, they deemed it wiser to rejoin the precipitate rout 
and leave their comrades to their fate. After long and vainless attempts to 
follow the others, a somewhat too risky spring at last brought down both 
the wounded ; they fell just between the two of us. The fright of the one 
must indeed have been terrible: sitting on its haunches, with widely 
opened jaws and unable to utter a sound, it glared at us for a while, 
and then ran off and tightly clutched its dead mate lying not far off. 
Docile and without a struggle it allowed us to tie and bring it to the 
boat where we splinted and carefully bandaged the smashed limb. Tt 
submitted to the operation without a growl or sign of resistance and 
only gave a short cry of agony with a truly beseeching and pitiful look 
when the pain got too bad or the bandage was put on too tight. On 
completion of the ordeal it ran under my seat in the boat and kept quite 
quiet, continuing to look at the dressings all the while. 
793. The vegetation along the left bank was already gradually be- 
coming less and less dense and the cool refreshing wind always stronger 
