The trees were at least two hundred feet tall, with branches shooting from their very tops, and to climb up these smooth trunks, where there was not the slightest support for either hand or foot, was an utter impossibility.
To throw a stone so high with any degree of accuracy would be rather a difficult matter; but yet Philip resolved to try it. The shore of the lake in certain places was covered with small, sharp, flint-like stones, and thus there was plenty of ammunition at hand, even if he should be forced to try very many times before succeeding.
The first shot was not a success. The stone, after striking the trunk of the tree a few feet below the branches, bounded among the foliage with a loud noise.
The apes, who had been intently watching all his movements, hardly waited until the stone reached the ground before the entire party gathered armfuls of stones and began to fling them at the topmost branches, causing the leaves and fruit to fly in every direction.
The smaller animals, who could not send the missiles so high, formed a chain, and passing the ammunition from hand to hand, supplied those who were more skillful, until that particular portion of the forest was almost entirely denuded of its foliage.
Impelled by his hunger Philip seized a handful of the small fruits, which were evidently a species of guava, and began to eat eagerly.
At that instant the army of stone-throwers ceased their labor as each gathered a supply of fruit, and began eating exactly as did their human companion. When he raised one of the guavas to his mouth they imitated his exact movement. When he chewed they worked their jaws most industriously. When he ejected a seed from his mouth a perfect shower of seeds fell upon the sand. If he threw away a stem they repeated the action; and when, by chance, he made a smacking noise with his lips, the shore of the lake resounded with such a snapping and clattering of jaws as would have caused the “end-man” of a minstrel troupe to grow exceedingly green with envy.
The abundant harvest which, when it was first gathered, gave promise of supplying Philip with food for many days, was disposed of in a very few moments. Before his hunger was satisfied the last guava had disappeared, and the army of apes looked up expectantly, wondering what was to be the next move in this queer sport.
It may seem comical to have one’s every gesture repeated by four or five hundred long-tailed, human-like animals, but it soon becomes annoying, to use the mildest term.