Sir Robert Schomburgk, in the Journal of his expedition to the Upper Corentyne, and interior of Guiana, when suffering the pangs of hunger, reports that at last their Indian hunter arrived, with heavy step, carrying on his shoulder a large, black, female spider monkey.
‘I glanced,’ he observes, ‘at Mr. Goodall, whose countenance depicted disappointment and disgust, but which sad necessity, and the large vacuum that two ounces of farinha must have left in his stomach, induced him to get the better of. He watched the preparations as the Indians proceeded step by step, first singeing off the hair from this human-like form, and then placing it in an upright position, with the arms crossed; when, the skin looking white now the hair was off, the sight proved too much for him, and I myself felt something like disgust at the meal before us. The sound of a heavy body falling on the ground drew my attention to a different direction, and to my great joy, I beheld a fine young forest deer, over which young Ammon stood, leaning on his gun with proud satisfaction. This was indeed, a happy turn in our affairs.
‘I have tasted the smaller kind of monkeys several times, but have never partaken of one which approached so nearly to the human form as this. The Indians were less scrupulous.’
The ateles, as well indeed as all other American quadrumanes, are esteemed as an article of food by the native Indians; and even Europeans, whom curiosity or necessity has induced to taste it, report their flesh to be white, juicy, and agreeable. Nor is it without being strongly disposed to question the nature of the act, that European sportsmen, unaccustomed to shooting monkeys, witness for the first time the dying struggles of these animals; without uttering a complaint, they silently watch the blood as it flows from the wound, from time to time turning their eyes upon the sportsman with an expression of reproach, which cannot be misinterpreted. Some travellers even go so far as to assert that the companions of the wounded individual will not only assist him to climb beyond the reach of further danger, but will even chew leaves and apply them to the wound, for the purpose of stopping the hemorrhage.
One of the spider monkeys, the marimonda (Ateles belzebuth, Desm.), is termed aru by the Indians of the Rio Guiana, and is a favourite article of food with the natives of the borders of the Cassiquiare, the higher Orinoco, and other rivers, and its boiled limbs are commonly to be seen in their huts.
The howling monkeys (Mycetes), which are of larger size, and fatter than some of the other species, are in great request with the Indians as food. Mr. Gosse states that the flavour of their flesh is like that of kid. The Aturian Indians, as well as those of Esmeralda, eat many kinds of monkeys at certain seasons of the year, and especially the couxio, or jacketed monkey (Pithecia sagulati, Traill).
Mr. Grant in his History of Brazil states, that apes and monkeys are esteemed good food by the natives.
The negroes and natives of New Granada, according to Bonnycastle, also eat the monkey.
To prepare this dish, the body is scalded in order to remove the hair, and after this operation has been performed, it has the exact appearance of a young dead child, and is so disgusting, that no one, excepting those pressed by hunger, could partake of the repast. It is not at all improbable that many savage nations who have been accused of cannibalism, have been very unjustly charged with it, for, according to Ulloa, the appearance of the monkey of Panama, when ready to be cooked, is precisely that of a human body.