MONKEYS, 
m 
ly skilled, when attacked, in mutually defending 
and assisting each other. When a traveller enters 
among these woods, they consider him as an in- 
vader upon their dominions, and join all to repel 
the intrusion. At first they survey him with a 
kind of insolent curiosity, They jump from branch 
to branch, pursue him as he goes along, and make 
a loud chattering, to call the rest of their com- 
panions together. They then begin their hos- 
tilities by grinning, threatening, and flinging down 
the withered branches at him, which they break 
from the trees : they even take their excrements 
in their hands, and throw them at his head. Thus 
they attend him wherever he goes ; jumping from 
tree to tree with such amazing swiftness, that the 
eye can scarce attend their motions. Although 
they take the most desperate leaps,, yet they are 
seldom seen to come to the ground, for they easily 
fasten upon the branches that break their fall, and 
Stick, either by their hands or feet, wherever they 
touch. If one of them happens to be wounded, 
the. rest assemble round, and clap their fingers into 
the wound, as if they were desirous of sounding 
its depth. If the blood flows in any quantity, 
some of them keep it shut up, while others get 
leaves which they chew, and thrust into the open- 
ing : however extraordinary this may appear, it 
Is asserted to be often seen, and to be strictly 
true. In this manner they wage a petulant, un- 
equal w ar ; and are often killed in numbers be- 
fore they think proper to make a retreat. This 
they effect with the same precipitation with which 
they at first come together. In this retreat the 
young are seen clinging to the back of the female, 
with which she jumps away, seemingly unembar- 
rassed by the burden. 
The curiosity of the Europeans has, in some 
peasure, induced the natives of the places where 
