Evening star., 1898-12-31
guide understood it, he declared, for he had
been hunting monkeys many years.


been hunting monkeys many years.
Mounted on scrubby steed, 1 rode for
an hour toward the glorious mountains,
through deep ravines, overhung with bali
siers" or wild plantain. trumpet tree and
bread fruits There. at last. by the bank of
a ripping stream, I dismounted and al
lowed the old man to tether the horse. in
hollow of broad level thousand feet
above the sea. Then 1 was for going on at
once on foot, the forest being too dense
for the horse TO penetrate. But the OLD
man shooh he wooily head and said:
'Massa. who done fin de monkey, you er
me? You no know monkey, eh? An. MIN
berry wise. Him no be ketch wiv chaff"'
Luncheon in the Woods.
Then. it was near noon and he said
the monkeys would now be lying up and
| would not come out again TO feed till mid
afternoon, 1 sat down and feli-to upon the
| repast spread out before me. The last
thing Mr.. Greatheart had shouted after
| me as / left him was. There's corkscrew
in the hamper, and there L found H. also
two bottles one of ale and another or 81.
Kits rum for which the corkscrew was
evidently intended: also a generous sup
ply of cold roast guinea fowl and TRIM
mings. which occupied me well until the
old man called a start for the woods above
us on a hill There we sat down on the
ridge and waited under the great gum
trees hung with vines, beneath spreading
tree ferns and screened by clumps OF or
chids and wild pines. 1t was no use the
guide said, tramping about the WOODS, LOT
the monkeys would hear us miles away
The only thing to do was to wait. ana so
wait we did, while my sable frlend Wills
pered to me stories of monkey lore.
Their real home or dwelling place Is, ne
told me, in the distant mountain tops,
where they construct nests of twigs lined
with leaves. and there bring forth their
young, in low trees sprnEing from the
cliffs. They rarely have more than one al
a birth, and the young is tended win sred'
solicitude by the mother monkey, VINO dah-
los nd fon3lpS il a human InOlHtI
would her babe. The monoogue became So
interesting that l was disappointed When
the old man placed hnger 10 , ms nps onkaV I,,.V
quar'l Dey mus toe be right ober our
heads!"
Scanning the tree tops hurdred feet ana
more above me, 1 could at first see nothing
but twigs and leaves. scarcely in motion in
the calm # the afternoon. The guide
touched nv elbox Look dar, massa see
dat monkey feedin Oh dose seeds IN the
top of an immense tree, So far up that u
looked n larger than kitten, saw the
animal he pointed out, crouchlng on ilnio.
quickly threw up my gun and fired the
left barrel and it slipped over the hno'
| fired the right, both barrels charged with
duck shot. The second shot caught the an
imal in mid air but it fell into the top of
tree benaa h it and there sank out OF slsh..
could look through the tree in every al-
rectiop. and yet. though great blood drops
ground. and the old man said, excltedty.
Him dead monkey, sab; him yo' meat,
could not see the beast In short l have
never seen him since that brief glimpse N
the air. where he may still be suspended,
like Mahomet's coffin. for ne did not come
down while 1 there. There was some
thing eerie abo 1t that disappearance, al
most in full sight, and while the blood
drops still battered pattered, around us on
the leaves.
The negro hunter ran off to get a shot ut
the troop. for at the report of my gun the
woods seemed all alive with monkeys, yet
every one just out of range. They had
been feeding all about us in the tree tops;
yet SO silently that I had not suspected
their near presence. Then there was rust
ling of leaves. moan through the woods
that might have been the sigh OF a ghost.
and without cry the troop withdrew up the
mountain side. Leaving me to watch the
tree in hope the game might fall, the negro
slided off after the monkey band. An hour
later | heard the distant report OF a gun,
and after waiting a long while the success
ful hunter appeared, dragging after MN
the carcass of a nle-pourd cnkey.
Too Much Like Murder.
1t was stin warm and bleeding, and, as 1t
had been eating seeds when shot, its
pouches were stuffed full of them, and on
It's countenance was a ghasuy grln that
seemed to pode no good TO its slayer My
monkey tso called by courtesy mad not
lallen and wnen 1 gazed upon the semi
human facc OF the one that mad been snot,
L was gIad nlne stand up above. Dead or
alive, it might be, but 1 dld not wish amy
further assurance on tnaG point, Tor IL II
had Iallen at my feet, siam by my iiand-
should nave felt as though had committed
murder,
But the old negro had no such scrupies,
and the while / slammed the monkey he mad
shot he was feeling the white, tender flesh,
smacklng his lips ard giuaung over the
prospective banquet OF monkey meat, as
cannibal might over the devouring OF u
MISSIONARY.
Eat uni. sah?" Oh COZ Sc me eat um; mos
Ger My, massa- Me eat um meat, an me
crack um head bone Uhe skulD fer toe git
de prainses. Fo de brainses, sab, mex me
wise lik Gle monkey Se'f, 50 ken clrcumbent
um AN heah um long ways on An sab,
eff yo' don wan de skin, HE glib um toe
nah pickney 70 to sleep on an mex UNI
spry lax de monkey is.
The Missing Link.
The skin was preserved with arsenic
dried with care and sent home, and proved
the missing link to connect the African
with the American monkey, much to the
joy of the naturaiiStS and the advantage of
science. This is the story glimpse of it
suggested to ME, the other day, ! wan
dered through the National Museum-the
skin of that dead-and-gone monkey which
| the indirect cause of numbering, in
the far-dlstant island of the West Indies.
And this is but one of the tragedies con-
sequent upon the acquisition by our mu-
SeumS of those deSicated tegumentS which
once covered animated bodies more or less
important in the scale of life A whole
volume might be written on such tragedies
provided one We're cognizant of the ante
cedent circumstances. +. A. ODER.
TI,<, Ill h..