154 
MONKEY. 
ration : like the savage nations among’ whom they 
are found, they guard their limits from the in- 
trusion of all strangers of a different race from 
themselves. It is of no avail for the lion or the 
tiger to dispute the point with these active little 
wretches, who carry on an offensive war from the 
tops of the trees, and springing from branch to 
branch bid defiance to their pursuers. The fea- 
thered inhabitants of the woods, who build their 
nests upon the trees, are continually disturbed by 
the monkeys, who are perpetually on the watch to 
rob them ; and such is their mischievous disposition, 
that we are assured they will fling their eggs upon 
the ground when they want appetite or inclination 
to devour them. Snakes are the greatest enemies 
the monkeys have ; and the larger kinds will swal- 
low them whole if they happen to surprise them 
sleeping. 
The negroes, who have a strong antipathy to 
these animals on account of the great mischief 
they do to their plantations, feel delighted when 
they can get an opportunity to go a monkey-shoot- 
ing. They love the flesh ; and, after having skinned 
the creature, serve it up at a negro feast, where it 
looks so like a child that none but a negro would 
endure the sight. 
The late Captain Stedman, who was for some 
years in Surinam, and whose feelings were exceed- 
ingly acute, being among the woods, and in want 
of fresh provisions, shot at two monkeys with the 
intention of making broth of them ; but the de- 
