MYCETES OR ALOUATTA 
and to allow of a ready loosening of the grip ; an oppos- 
able thumb does not aid in this manceuvre. The 
Coaitas, as the native American name of the monkeys 
runs, are peaceful in disposition, but eminently thievish 
in habit, and therefore less suitable as pets than 
might be presumed from the great numbers that are 
kept as pets in Central America. On the other hand, 
there is at least one spider monkey which has been 
described as very fierce. The spider monkey, or at 
least a spider monkey, is roasted and eaten; as it 
presents, when dressed for the table, a horrible resem- 
blance to a black baby, it is usual to lessen this likeness 
by cutting off the head and hands. The flavour of the 
flesh is beefy, not veal-like. The hint of cannibalism 
involved in dining off monkey is tempered by the fact 
that the creatures are very largely, but not absolutely, 
vegetarian in habit. Von Humboldt suggested that can- 
nibalism may have commenced in an evolutionary way 
with this ‘“‘simiophagy,” or at least that it may have 
contributed to lessen the initial shock which would be 
caused by serving up man as a fiéce de resistance at a 
banquet. Probably, however, cannibalism is not a 
single phenomenon ; there are, we are inclined to think, 
two kinds; the one a religious ceremony, the other 
purely gastronomic. 
THE HOWLER 
The howling monkeys are Platyrrhine, and thus 
necessarily South American monkeys which have been 
placed in the genus Mycetes, or, as it is sometimes 
called, Alowatta, a barbarous word, which is, however, 
older than the more correct Mycetes. They are called 
howlers not merely because it is their name, as in so 
many creatures with non-descriptive appellations, but 
because they do howl] and awake the echoes of American 
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