TIIE COAITA. 
175 
empty pot in one band, and tlie money into tbe other, whereupon he went “ spidering,” as Broderip 
terms it, to the tavern, where they could by no means get his money from him till they had filled his 
pot with wine. As the ganymede of the Governor came back with his charge, certain idle children 
would occasionally meet him in the street, and cast stones at him, whereupon he would put down his 
pot, and cast stones at them, till he had assured his way ; then would he return to carry home the 
pot. And what is more, although he was a good bibber of wine, yet would he never touch it till leave 
was given to him. It is about as true as the account of the habits of the genus given by a distinguished 
French author. He says that they live in greater or smaller troops in the forests ; their food consists 
of insects, and they also eat little fishes, mollusks (shellfish), and other animal substances. When they 
are a little way from the coast they sometimes come down to the beach by the sea-side and collect 
such things as oysters, and they get at the inside by breaking the shells between stones. Most of the 
species live far away from such luxuries, and one and all are vegetarians, as a rule, and eat an insect 
or suck an egg or two as the exception. 
The Coaita, or Quata, is large for an Ateles, and is covered with long, coarse hair, of a glossy 
black colour, the under part at the groin being without any. The hair of the head is directed forwards, 
and conceals the ears, which have no lobe, and the face is of a reddish flesh-colour. It is an intelligent 
animal, and shows much curiosity when anything new is seen in its vicinity. All the agility of the 
genus is to be witnessed in its climbing and swinging from tree to tree ; and it has no thumbs. They 
live in Surinam and in the Brazils. Bates, when living on the Lower Amazon, saw much of this 
Monkey, or Coaita, as he properly terms it. He describes it as a large black Monkey, covered with 
coarse hair, and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny, flesh-coloured hue. Moreover, he 
found that the natives esteemed its flesh very much, and the military commandant of the place used to 
send out a hunter every week to shoot one for his table. “ One day,” writes this author, “ I went out 
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. 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 dec2>est part of a ravine we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead, 
and Manuel soon pointed out a Coaita to me. There was something liuman-like in its appearance, as 
the lean, dark, shaggy creature moved deliberately amongst the branches, at a great height. I fired, 
but only, unfortunately, wounded it in the belly. It fell with a crash headlong about twenty or thirty 
feet, and then caught a branch with its tail, and remained suspended in mid air. Before I could reload 
it recovered itself, and scrambled nimbly to the topmost branches, out of the reach of a fowling-piece, 
and we could perceive the poor thing apparently probing the wound with its fingers.” He states that 
“ Coaitas are more frequently kept in a tame state than any other Monkey. The Indians are fond of 
them as pets, and the women often suckle them when young at their breasts 1 They become attached 
to their masters, and will sometimes follow them to a considerable distance. I once saw a ridiculously 
tame Coaita. It was an old female, and had accompanied its owner — a trader on the river- — on 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, heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the vocabulary of Portuguese 
vituperation. The poor Monkey, 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 passing 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 
last her master altered his tone — ‘ It’s all a lie, my old woman, you’re an angel, a flower, a good, affec- 
tionate old creature, 4 and so forth. Immediately the poor Monkey ceased its wailing, 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 the Ccbus, and no trace of the surly, untamable temper of the 
Howlers. Bates says it is an arrant thief, and that it shows considerable cunning in pilfering small 
articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping-place. The natives of the Upper Amazon 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 poison with which the darts are tipped) in its mouth. The 
