THE MARIMONDAS.
That day they made good progress, having dropped down the river a
distance of fifty miles at least. They might even have gone farther, but
a good camping-place offered, and they did not like to pass it, as they
might not find another so convenient. It was a muddy bank, or rather a
promontory that ran out into the river, and was entirely without trees,
or any other vegetation, as it was annually overflowed, and formed, in
fact, part of the bed of the river. At this time the mud was quite dry
and smooth, and appeared as if it had been paddled and beaten down by
the feet of animals and birds. This was, in fact, the case, for the
point was a favourite resting-place for the "chiguires," or "capivaras,"
on their passage to and from the water. There were tracks of tapirs,
too, and peccaries, and many sorts of wading birds, that had been there
while the mud was still soft.
There were no trees to which to hang their hammocks, but the ground was
smooth and dry, and they could sleep well enough upon it. They would not
be troubled with the bats, as these creatures keep mostly in the dark
shadowy places of the forest; and snakes would not likely be found out
on the bare ground. They thought they would there be safer from jaguars,
too. In fact, it was from these considerations that they had chosen the
place for their camp. They could go to the woods for an armful or two of
sticks to cook supper with, and that would suffice.
The balza was brought close in on the upper side of the promontory, so
as to be out of the current; and then all landed and made their
preparations for passing the night. Guapo marched off with his axe to
get some firewood, and Leon accompanied him to assist in carrying it.
They had not far to go--only a hundred yards or so, for up at the end of
the promontory the forest began, and there were both large trees and
underwood.
As they walked forward one species of trees caught their attention. They
were palm-trees, but of a sort they had not yet met with. They were very
tall, with a thick, globe-shaped head of pinnate, plume-like leaves. But
what rendered these trees peculiar was the stem. It was slender in
proportion to the height of the tree, and was thickly covered with long
needle-shaped spines, not growing irregularly, but set in bands, or
rings, around the tree. This new palm was the "pupunha," or
"peach-palm," as it is called, from the resemblance which its fruits
bear to peaches. It is also named "pirijao" in other parts of South
America, and it belongs to the genus "_Gullielma_."
At the tops of these trees, under the great globe of leaves, Guapo and
Leon perceived the nuts. They were hanging in clusters, as grapes grow;
but the fruits were as large as apricots, of an oval, triangular shape,
and of a beautiful reddish yellow colour. That they were delicious
eating, either roasted or boiled, Guapo well knew; and he was determined
that some of them should be served at supper. But how were they to be
reached? No man could climb such a tree as they grew upon! The needles
would have torn the flesh from any one who should have attempted it.
Guapo knew this. He knew, moreover, that the Indians, who are very fond
of the fruit of this tree,--so much so that they plant large _palmares_
of it around their villages--have a way of climbing it to get at the
ripe clusters. They tie cross pieces of wood from one tree to the other,
and thus make a sort of step-ladder, by which they ascend to the fruit.
It is true, they might easily cut down the trees, as the trunks are not
very thick; but that would be killing the goose that gave the golden
eggs.
Guapo, however, had no farther interest in this wild orchard than to
make it serve his turn for that one night; so, laying his axe to one of
the "pupunhas," he soon levelled its majestic stem to the ground.
Nothing more remained than to lop off the clusters, any one of which was
as much as Leon could lift from the ground. Guapo found the wood hard
enough even in its green state, but when old it becomes black, and is
then so hard that it will turn the edge of an axe. There is, perhaps, no
wood in all South America harder than that of the pirijao palm.
It is with the needle-like spines of this species that many tribes of
Indians puncture their skins in tattooing themselves, and other uses are
made by them of different parts of this noble tree. The macaws, parrots,
and other fruit-eating birds, are fonder of the nuts of the pupunha than
perhaps any other species; and so, too, would be the fruit-eating
quadrupeds if they could get at them. But the thorny trunk renders them
quite inaccessible to all creatures without wings, excepting man
himself. No; there is one other exception, and that is a creature
closely allied to man, I mean the _monkey_.
Notwithstanding the thorny stem, which even man cannot scale without a
contrivance; notwithstanding the apparently inaccessible
clusters--inaccessible from their great height--there is a species of
monkey that manages now and then to get a meal of them. How do these
monkeys manage it? Not by climbing the stem, for the thorns are too
sharp even for them. How then? Do the nuts fall to the ground and allow
the monkeys to gather them? No. This is not the case. How then? We shall
see!
Guapo and Leon had returned to the camp, taking with them the pupunha
fruit and the firewood. A fire was kindled, the cooking-pot hung over it
on a tripod, and they all sat around to wait for its boiling.
While thus seated, an unusual noise reached their ears coming from the
woods. There were parrots and macaws among the palms making noise
enough, and fluttering about, but it was not these. The noise that had
arrested the attention of our travellers was a mixture of screaming, and
chattering, and howling, and barking, as if there were fifty sorts of
creatures at the making of it. The bushes, too, were heard "switching
about," and now and then a dead branch would crack, as if snapped
suddenly. To a stranger in these woods such a blending of sounds would
have appeared very mysterious and inexplicable. Not so to our party.
They knew it was only a troop of monkeys passing along upon one of their
journeys. From their peculiar cries, Guapo knew what kind of monkeys
they were.
"_Marimondas_," he said.
The marimondas are not true "howlers," although they are of the same
tribe as the "howling monkeys." They belong to the genus _Ateles_, so
called because they want the thumb, and are therefore _imperfect_ or
_unfinished_ as regards the hands. But what the ateles want in hands is
supplied by another member--the tail, and this they have to all
perfection. It is to them a fifth hand, and apparently more useful than
the other four. It assists them very materially in travelling through
the tree-tops. They use it to bring objects nearer them. They use it to
suspend themselves in a state of repose, and thus suspended, they
sleep--nay more, thus suspended they often die! 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.
The marimonda is one of the largest of South American monkeys, being
about three feet standing upon its hind-legs, with a tail of immense
length, thick and strong near the root, and tapering to a point. On its
under side, for the last foot or so from the end, there is no hair, but
a callous skin, and this is the part used for holding on to the
branches. The marimonda is far from being a handsome monkey. Its long,
thin arms and thumbless hands give it an attenuated appearance, which is
not relieved by the immense disproportioned tail. It is reddish, or of a
parched coffee colour, on the upper part of the body, which becomes
blanched on the throat, belly, and insides of the thighs. Its colour, in
fact, is somewhat of the hue of the half-blood Indian and Negro,--hence
the marimonda is known in some parts of Spanish America by the name of
"mono zambo," or "zambo" monkey--a "zambo" being the descendant of
Indian and Negro parents.
The noise made by the marimondas which had been heard by our party
seemed to proceed from the bank of the river, some distance above the
promontory; but it was evidently growing louder every minute, and they
judged that the monkeys were approaching.
In a few minutes they appeared in sight, passing along the upper part of
a grove of trees that stood close to the water. Our travellers had now
an excellent view of them, and they sat watching them with interest.
Their mode of progression was extremely curious. They never came to the
ground, but where the branches interlocked they ran from one to the
other with the lightning speed of squirrels, or, indeed, like birds upon
the wing.
Sometimes, however, the boughs stood far apart. Then the marimonda,
running out as far as the branch would bear him, would wrap a few inches
of his tail around it and spring off into the air. In the spring he
would give himself such an impetus as would cause the branch to revolve,
and his body following this circular motion, with the long thin arms
thrown out in front, he would grasp the first branch that he could
reach. This, of course, would land him on a new tree, and over that he
would soon spring to the next.
Among the troop several females were perceived with their young. The
latter were carried on the backs of the mothers, where they held on by
means of their own little tails, feeling perfectly secure. Sometimes the
mothers would dismount them, and cause them to swing themselves from
branch to branch, going before to show them the way. This was witnessed
repeatedly. In other places, where the intervening space was too wide
for the females with their young to pass over, the males could be seen
bending down a branch of the opposite tree, so as to bring it nearer,
and assist them in crossing. All these movements were performed amidst a
constant gabble of conversation, and shouting, and chattering, and the
noise of branches springing back to their places.
The grove through which the troop was passing ended just by the edge of
the promontory. The palm-trees succeeded, with some trees of large size
that grew over them.
The marimondas at length reached the margin of the grove, and then they
were all seen to stop, most of them throwing themselves, heads down, and
hanging only by their tails. This is the position in which they find
themselves best prepared for any immediate action; and it is into this
attitude they throw themselves when suddenly alarmed. They remained so
for some minutes; and from the chattering carried on among them, it was
evident that they were engaged in deliberation. A loud and general
scream proclaimed the result; and all of them, at one and the same
instant, dropped down to the ground, and were seen crossing over among
the palm-trees.
They had to pass over a piece of open ground with only some weeds upon
it; but their helplessness on the ground was at once apparent. They
could not place their palms on the surface, but doubled them up and
walked, as it were, on the backs of their hands in the most awkward
manner. Every now and again, they flung out their great tails, in hopes
of grasping something that would help them along; and even a large weed
was a welcome support to them. On the ground they were evidently "out of
their element." In fact, the _ateles_ rarely descend from the trees,
which are their natural _habitat_.
At length they reached the palms; and, seated in various attitudes,
looked up at the tempting fruit, all the while chattering away. How were
they to reach it? Not a tree that was not covered with long needles--not
a bunch of the luscious fruit that was not far above the height of the
tallest marimonda! How were they to get at it?--that was the question.
It might have been a puzzling question to so many boys--to the monkeys
it was not; for in less than a score of seconds they had settled it in
their minds how the pupunhas were to be plucked.
Rising high over the palms grew a large tree, with long out-reaching
branches. It was the "zamang" tree--a species of _mimosa_, and one of
the most beautiful trees of South America. Its trunk rose full seventy
feet without a branch; and then it spread out in every direction in
numerous horizontal limbs, that forked and forked again until they
became slender boughs. These branches were clad with the delicate
pinnate leaves that characterise the family of the mimosas.
Many of the pupunha palms grew under the shadow of this zamang, but not
the tallest ones. These were farther out. There were some, however,
whose tufted crowns reached within a few yards of the lower limbs of the
mimosa.
The monkeys, after a short consultation, were seen scampering up the
zamang. Only some of the old and strong ones went--the rest remained
watching below.
From the earnestness of their looks it was evident they felt a lively
interest in the result. So, too, did the party of travellers; for these
watched so closely, that the pot was in danger of boiling over.
The marimondas, having climbed the trunk, ran out upon the lowermost
limbs, until they were directly above the palms. Then one or two were
seen to drop off, and hang down by their tails. But, although, with
their fore-arms at full stretch, they hung nearly five feet from the
branch, they could not even touch the highest fronds of the palms, much
less the fruit-clusters that were ten or twelve feet farther down. They
made repeated attempts; suspending themselves over the very tallest
palms, but all to no purpose.
One would have supposed they would have given it up as a bad job. So
thought Doña Isidora, Leon, and the little Leona. Don Pablo knew better
by his reading, and Guapo by his experience. When they saw that no one
of them could reach the nuts, several were seen to get together on one
of the branches. After a moment one dropped down head-foremost as
before, and hung at his full length. Another ran down the body of this
one, and taking a turn of his tail round his neck and fore-arm, skipped
off and also hung head downwards. A third joined himself on to the
second in a similar manner, and then a fourth. The fore-arms of the
fourth rested upon the fruit-cluster of the pupunha!
The chain was now long enough for the purpose. In a few minutes the last
monkey on the chain, with his teeth and hands, had separated the
footstalk of the spathes, and the great clusters--two of them there
were--fell heavily to the bottom of the tree. The marimondas on the
ground ran forward; and, in the midst of loud rejoicings began to pull
off the "peaches" and devour them.
But the monkeys above did not cease their labours. There were many
mouths to feed, and they wanted more nuts. Without changing their
position, they, by means of their arms and legs, threw themselves into a
vibrating motion, and by this means the last on the string soon seized
upon another pupunha, and also detached its fruit. In this way they
continued, until they had stripped every tree within their reach; when,
judging they had got enough, the lowermost monkey _climbed back upon
himself_, then up his companions to the branch, and in the same style
was followed by the other three in succession. As soon as they were
clear of one another, the whole party came down by the trunk to the
ground, and joined their comrades below in the luxurious repast.