SAPAJOUS. 
149 
nessed towards the source of the Orinoco, but which is unknown on the banks of the 
larger rivers. The noises of animals began just as the sun sank beneath the trees 
after a sweltering afternoon, leaving the sky above of the intensest shade of blue. 
Two flocks of howling monkeys, one close to our canoe, the other about a furlong 
distant, filled the echoing forest with their dismal roaring.” 
We have already mentioned the circumstance that a European traveller on one 
occasion supped on roast baboon; and we may here call attention to the fact that 
in Humboldt’s time monkey-flesh formed a by no means inconsiderable portion of 
the food of the natives of certain parts of South America, at least on particular 
occasions. Humboldt tells us that when his party was travelling in Ecuador, and 
had arrived at Esmeraldas, they found a native festival in progress. And in the 
room where the feast was held they observed numbers of large roasted monkeys (of 
what species we are not informed), blackened by smoke, and arranged round the 
walls. These monkeys were bent into a sitting posture, with the head generally 
resting on the long and skinny arms, and had been roasted by being placed on a 
grating of very hard wood over a clear fire. Humboldt observes that on seeing 
the natives devouring an arm or leg of one of these roasted monkeys, it was 
difficult not to believe that this habit of eating animals so closely resembling man 
in their physical organisation, had, to a certain degree, contributed to diminish 
among these people the horror of cannibalism. 
The Sapajous, or Capuchin Monkeys. 
Genus Gebus. 
The long and prehensile-tailed monkeys so commonly seen in menageries, and 
known respectively as sapajous or capuchin monkeys, and spider-monkeys, may be 
regarded as the typical representatives of the family Cebidcv; and, together with 
two other genera, constitute a group which can be easily recognised, and as easily 
distinguished from all their cousins. With the exception of the howlers, of which 
more anon, this group of monkeys is indeed the only one furnished with prehensile 
tails; and, altogether apart from the question of voice, and the presence of certain 
structures connected therewith, all its members differ from the howlers by their 
rounded heads, and the nearly vertical plane of the face. 
The sapajous may at once be distinguished from the three other genera 
included in this group by the circumstance that their tails, which are comparatively 
stout and of only moderate length, have no naked part on the lower surface of the 
extremity. In this respect they are not so perfectly adapted for the purpose of 
prehension as are those of the other genera. Another feature of these monkeys is 
that the hair does not partake of a woolly nature; while the general build of the 
body is rather stout; the arms and legs according in this respect with the body, 
not being excessively long nor excessively slender. 
The native name of these monkeys on the Amazon is Caiarara, or “ macaw¬ 
headed,” the word Arara meaning a macaw. It seems, however, that Caiarara is 
abbreviated frequently into Cai, and from the latter it appears that the name 
