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It resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste. During the time of our stay in this part of the Cupari, we could get scarcely anything but fish to eat, and as this diet disagreed with me, three successive days of it reducing me to a state of great weakness. I was obliged to make the most of our Coaita meat.
Of all the monkey tribe the ateles are those that have most prehensile power in their tails. There are several species of them known the coaita, the white-faced, the black cayou, the beelzebub, the chamek, the black-handed, and the marimonda. The habits of all are very similar, though the species differ in size and colour.
In these apes the tail, as a prehensile organ, reaches its highest degree of perfection; and on this account it would, perhaps, be correct to consider the Coaitas as the extreme development of the American type of apes. As far as we know, from living and fossil species, the New World has progressed no farther than the Coaita towards the production of a higher form of the Quadrumanous order.
The flesh of this monkey is much esteemed by the natives in this part of the country, and the Military Commandant of Obydos, Major Gama, every week sent a negro hunter to shoot one for his table. One day I went on a Coaita hunt, borrowing a negro slave of a friend to show me the way.
The disposition of the Coaita is mild in the extreme it has none of the painful, restless vivacity of its kindred, the Cebi, and no trace of the surly, untameable temper of its still nearer relatives, the Mycetes, or howling monkeys. It is, however, an arrant thief, and shows considerable cunning in pilfering small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping place.
They are always in motion except when the animal is perfectly at rest coiling and uncoiling themselves, like the trunks of elephants, seeking to grasp, apparently, whatever comes within their reach. The coaita can apply its tail to all sorts of uses. So delicate is its touch, that one would almost think it possessed the power of sight.
When in the deepest part of a ravine we heard a rustling sound in the trees overheard, and Manoel soon pointed out a Coaita to me. There was something human-like in its appearance, as the lean, dark, shaggy creature moved deliberately amongst the branches at a great height. I fired, but unfortunately only wounded it in the belly.
There are several species of them known the coaita, the white-faced, the black cayou, the beelzebub, the chamek, the black-handed, and the marimonda. The habits of all are very similar, though the species differ in size and colour.
"I found a description of them in my book, under the title of Ateles, or Coaita. The white-faced species is the Ateles marginatus. There are several species very similar in their appearance and habits." I have more to say by-and-by about these spider monkeys. We now found that it was time to begin our return to the river.
The eager and passionate Cebi seem to take the lead of all the South American monkeys in intelligence and docility, and the Coaita has perhaps the most gentle and impressible disposition; but the Parauacu, although a dull, cheerless animal, excels all in this quality of capability of attachment to individuals of our own species.
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