506 
AMEEICAl^ AaBIOTJLTtTBlST. 
[November, 
A Living Head-dress. 
JOHN K. CORYEIX. 
One of the pleasnnt charactensties of the South 
Ainei'ican Indians is their fondness for pets. Tliere 
is scarcely an animal, from the savao'e and treacher¬ 
ous puma to the most gentle and affectionate bird, 
that is not domesticated among the half-savage 
natives of tlie great continent. With a love of ani¬ 
mals they have a remarkable faculty for exciting 
love in return, and therefore do not coniine their 
pets in cages to pine and drag out a miserable 
existence, but give them full liberty, trusting to 
affection alone to keep them from straying away. 
As is quite natural, that lively, knowing little 
trickster, the monkey,, which is found in great 
numbers in South America, is a prime favorite 
with the lazy but good-natured and fun-loving In¬ 
dians. Hence every village is full of the mischiev¬ 
ous creatures, ready to play their pranks upon the 
first stranger who comes along. Among the mon¬ 
keys, however, the Marmoset branch of the family 
comes first in the rank of pets. The Marmoset is 
a tiny, delicate, soft-furred creature, scarcely more 
than half a foot long. It is very shy of straugers. 
Eig. 1.— A PAIR OF MARMOSETS. 
but gives its whole heart to its friends, reeeiving 
and bestowing caresses with a tender confidence 
which never fails to work upon the soft-hearted, 
simple folk of those tropics. Moreover, it lacks 
the almost sataulc love of mischief which is such a 
conspicuous trait of its cousin, the monkey. 
A South American lady wlio kept a pair of these 
dainty pets, often tells with tears in her eyes of 
their great love for each other. For some time the 
marmosets lived together a perfect model of con¬ 
nubial bliss. Where one went, there also went the 
other. In short, they acted like a pair of the most 
devoted human lovers. One sad day the husband 
died. The bereaved wife could not comprehend 
her loss. By every tender little artifice she tried to 
coax her lost love back to life, and as each effort 
failed she would utter a plaintive little moan and 
gently stroke the glossy fur of her dead lord. At 
last the truth seemed to come to her, and she 
ceased her efforts and sat beside the little body 
with a mournful dejection pitiful to see. The body 
was removed, but she made no other sign of con- 
ciousness than to put her hands before her eyes, 
and thus she remained, refusing food until death 
came to her too, and as the good lady always says: 
“Ihope they are together now.” 
The prettiest and most valued of the marmoset 
family are the Tamarins, and of these the one 
called Deville’s Midas is foremost as a pet, particu¬ 
larly with the Peruvian women, who lodge the 
delicate, pretty little thing in their back hair, 
where it stays as in a haven of refuge the moment 
a stranger comes near. It is exceedingly shy at 
first, but under the uniformly kind treatment it 
receives, soon becomes familiar and makes itself 
thoroughly at home. It is not as intelligent as the 
monkey, but is quite as active, and has a very deli¬ 
cate sense of humor too, though it seems quite de¬ 
void of malice. It is said that out of pure wan- 
tonuess it will sometimes take up a prominent po¬ 
sition on its owner’s head, and pretend to engage 
in an active hunt through the hair for the sort of 
game which sometimes is found in hair not care¬ 
fully tended. While occupied in this way it chatters 
at the spectators as if inviting participation in the 
joke. If the truth must be told, the Midas, when 
kept by the native women, has no need to pre¬ 
tend to hunt for game, the chase is a real one, and 
probably satisfactory to both woman and Midas. 
When seen skipping along the branches in the 
forest, the Midas, and indeed all the Marmosets, 
look more like squirrels than monkeys. They are 
in fact, however, far enough removed from the 
squirrel order. They not only lack the chisel-like 
teeth of the squirrel, but they have the great dis¬ 
tinguishing mark of the monkey — four hands. 
The Marmoset has not the prehensile tail, which 
is the peculiarity of most South American monkeys, 
and is seen in no other monkeys. The little 
loving Marmoset is found only in South America. 
An Ulustratcd Numerical.— The whole con¬ 
tains thirty-five letters, and makes in the order 
numbered : a work by Dickens, one by Hawthorne, 
and one by Sir Walter Scott. The names of the 
nine numbered pictures in the puzzle, are made 
with the letters contained in the three book titles. 
A Eed Letter Day. 
AGNES CARR SAGE. 
A circus was coming to town, and for weeks 
great red and yellow posters had adorned walls and 
fences, blazoning forth such wonderful sights, that 
every boy and girl in Summerville was half wild 
with excitement. Over and over again they counted 
their pennies saved up against the eventful 
day ; they pieked berries and ran of errands to 
add to the fund, and almost ealculated the hours, 
until the trained dogs, huge elephants, educated 
monkeys, hair-raising acrobats, the fat woman and 
the dwarf, Mr. Merryman, the funny clown, and 
all the other marvels should appear in their midst. 
And at last the long expected morning dawned, hot 
and sultry—as circus days are apt to be, and when 
at an early hour the little folks rubbed the sleep 
from their eyes, and ran to peer over into Long- 
street’s meadow, there were the white tents which, 
mushroom-like, had sprung up in a night; the 
gorgeous caravans gleaming gaily in the first rays 
of the rising sun, and all around the delightful 
bustle of unpacking and arranging preparatory to 
the afternoon performances. But one pair of gray 
eyes had no sparkle of anticipation in them that 
day, and one childish face was very sober, as lame 
Benny Fenton gazed out of the side window of his 
cottage home, and listened to the tramp, tramp, of 
the hearty, healthy, countiy lads, flocking in 
the direction of the fascinating circus grounds. 
Benny was as poor as a church mouse, and knew 
his widowed mother could never spare him the 
twenty-five cents admission fee, even if he could 
make his way through the crowd on his little 
crutches. So he tried hard to read his favorite 
books and forget the event that was turning the 
quiet village topsy-turvy, but “misery loves com¬ 
pany,” .and he was very glad when his friend and 
neighbor, Dolly Dutton, who was as poor as him¬ 
self, came in to sympathize and console, for she 
was a light-hearted little soul, and her cheerful 
smile soon drove away the boy’s frown as she said : 
“ Never mind, Benny, I’ll bring in my knitting this 
afternoon, and we will have a good time on the 
doorstep, watching the people pass by, and the 
wind is blowing right this way, so we can hear the 
music beautifully, and that will be much better 
than nothing, you know.”—“ Tes,” assented Ben¬ 
ny, “but DoUy, 1 do so want to see all the curious 
animals in the menagerie, especially the hippopota¬ 
mus. I have been reading about it and spent 
three days learning to pronounce it, but I can’t 
imagine exactly how it looks.”—“ I would rather 
see the ‘ Flying Sylph,’ ” said Dolly, who had 
studied the hand-bills. “ She rides three horses at 
once, and flies through the paper hoops like a 
bird.”—“It must be all lovely!” sighed Benny, 
“ though there is no use thinking about it,” but at 
that moment a loud shouting and racing was heard 
without, and both children uttered a startled cry, 
as on the window ledge, suddenly appeared a curi¬ 
ous little figure, and a small, pitiful brown face 
was pressed against the glass.—“ What is it! oh! 
what is it!” screamed Benny, falling back in his 
chair; but brave Dolly hastened to open the win¬ 
dow, and take the object in her arms. She was not 
an instant too soon, for a large stone came whiz¬ 
zing through the air, grazed her arms, and fell with 
a loud crash in the middle of the floor of the room. 
“It is a poor little monkey,” she said, “and 
those cruel boys are trying to stone it, but they 
shan’t have it to tease,” and she gently smoothed 
the round, brown head, which cuddled down on 
her shoulder, as though asking for protection, 
while the frightened little creature chattered 
mournfully.—“ How cunning he is !” said Benny, 
now all annimation, “ and do look at his scarlet 
coat, and hat, and feather! He must have run 
away from the circus and been chased down here.” 
By this time the small yard was besieged by a 
party of large, rough youths, who loudly demanded 
the monkey, saying that they “ wanted to have 
some fun with it.” But Dolly only clasped the 
trembling animal tighter and closer as the rude 
voices grew more threatening, and Benny, though 
pale and frightened, advanced to the window. 
