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I have observed that, when an extraordinary incident, the moans for instance of a wounded araguato, fixed the attention of the band, the howlings were for some minutes suspended. Our guides assured us gravely, that, to cure an asthma, it is sufficient to drink out of the bony drum of the hyoidal bone of the araguato.
"Good heavens! What is that?" I exclaimed, as a plaintive cry, which ended in a wail of anguish, such as might be given by a lost soul in torment, rang through the forest. "It's an araguato, a howling monkey," said Carmen, indifferently. "That's only some old fellow setting the tune; we shall have a regular chorus presently." And so we had.
"And against other enemies I have this," I added, touching my revolver. A brave speech, just after that araguato episode; but I did not make it without blushing mentally. He shook his head, and said it was a poor weapon against some enemies; also truly enough that it would procure no birds and monkeys for the stew-pot.
Strange, is it not, that among animals, those that approach nearest to man, like him are not gifted by nature with the power of swimming? It is evident, then, that that is an art left to be discovered by the intellect of man. To fall into the water would be a sad mishap for a monkey, not only on account of the ducking, but of the danger. There is not much likelihood of an araguato falling in.
Indescribably horrible were my sensations at that moment; I was deafened, and would possibly have been maddened had I not, as by a miracle, chanced to see a large araguato on a branch overhead, roaring with open mouth and inflated throat and chest. It was simply a concert of howling monkeys that had so terrified me!
The araguato is full three feet without the tail, and that powerful member is much longer. When the band made its appearance on the igaripé, they were seen to come to a halt, all of them gathering into a great tree that stood by the water's edge. This tree rose higher than the rest, and the most of the monkeys having climbed among the top branches, were visible from the balza.
The araguato at the "tail-end" of the bridge, not knowing what had happened, and thinking all was right for swinging himself across, slipped his tail from the branch just at the very same instant that the wounded one let go, and the whole chain fell "souse" into the water!
I could scarcely suppose that animals of such a size could make so much noise. "You have there some of my friends who serenaded you last night," observed the recluse, when, after a few minutes, the monkeys ceased howling. "These are the mycetes, or ursine howlers. The creature is called in this country araguato, and sometimes by naturalists the alouatte.
The araguato monkeys eat it with avidity; and the nation of the Guaraounos, whose whole existence, it may be said, is closely linked with that of the moriche palm-tree, produce from it a fermented liquor, slightly acid, and extremely refreshing. This palm-tree, with its large shining leaves, folded like a fan, preserves a beautiful verdure at the period of the greatest drought.
I had always heard them at a distance; here they were gathered in scores, possibly hundreds the whole araguato population of the forest, I should think close to me; and it may give some faint conception of the tremendous power and awful character of the sound thus produced by their combined voices when I say that this animal miscalled "howler" in English would outroar the mightiest lion that ever woke the echoes of an African wilderness.
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