HAND OF THE SPIDER MONKEY.
Moreover, there is a graceful co-ordination or mutual action of the muscles of the limbs, body, and tail to a common end in most of its movements which is evidently done by will. The movements of the tail are perfectly wonderful, and, indeed, so perfectly does it hold on, although the animal cannot see what this long slender organ is doing, that most children think there is an eye at the end of it. Directly the Spider Monkey rises on its hind legs, up goes the tail straight behind its back, and curves a little at the tip downwards: the delicate hairs stick out and feel the slightest touch or passage of air; and the least touch induces the last few joints to clasp hold. The animal will walk along and catch hold of things with its tail at every other step or so, and will change its hold in exact proportion to its rate of progression. All these movements necessitate clasping, unclasping, twisting, and a regular succession of efforts, and are not likely to be carried out except by an animal with a well-developed nervous system. Hence it has been a matter of some interest to compare the brain of Ateles with those of other Monkeys, and even with that of man.
Even in this Monkey, which is low in the scale on account of its having badly-developed thumbs, the structures of the brain greatly resemble those of the Monkeys of the Old World. The nerves are large in proportion to the substance of the brain, and the brain proper is narrow in front and hollowed out beneath, where it rests on the orbits. But these proofs of a low kind of intelligence and of great muscular power are accompanied by structures which mimic or sketch out those of the human brain in an extraordinary manner. The cerebellum, or little brain, is large, as it is the organ which has much to do with regulating and co-ordinating the movements of the muscles, but it is quite covered by the back part, or posterior lobes, of the brain. Inside the brain the cavities called the ventricles may be seen, and they are made on the human plan, for the cavity on each side (lateral ventricle) has a front part, a back part, and a deep one, and on its lower surface, or floor, certain roundings, which are called by odd names, such as the hippocampus minor and the hippocampus major. These are visible in the brain of Ateles as they are in man. Now, it is very remarkable, allowing for the difference in the size of the brain of most other Monkeys and of man, that the Spider Monkey should have larger posterior lobes to its brain than they have. Moreover, this unusual size produces a greater length of the back part (or horn, or cornu) of the lateral ventricle in Ateles. The difference, however, between the packing of the nervous substance of the brain in man and in the Spider Monkey is vast, for in this last there are few convolutions, but the principal are happily said by Huxley to sketch out the position of the most important in the human brain. The projection of the back part of the brain of the Spider Monkeys over the cerebellum is at least one-tenth of an inch. Hence there is much nervous matter in the back part of the brain, and this compensates for the narrowing and diminution of nervous matter in the front. Are the nerves, then, which give the Spider Monkey its wonderful power of activity and complicated movement, situated in the back part of the head? At present physiologists have not satisfactorily shown what are the offices of these back or occipital lobes of the brain; the rounded floor of the cavity in the brain, which goes by the absurd name of hippocampus, because it is curved like a “sea horse,” and which is well seen in Ateles, has much to do with the sensation of touch, and the nervous matter at the sides of the brain appears to be connected with the nerves of the muscles of the limbs. The Ateles lead a life of very great sameness in their forests, and their perceptions and intelligence are never greatly stimulated, hence the fore part of the brain is small.
THE COAITA.[84]
This is the Monkey of which an extraordinary story is told by Acosta. It belonged to the Governor of Carthagena, and was regularly sent to the tavern for wine. They who sent him put an empty pot in one hand, and the money into the other, whereupon he went “spidering,” as Broderip terms it, to the tavern, where they could by no means get his money from him till they had filled his pot with wine. As the ganymede of the Governor came back with his charge, certain idle children would occasionally meet him in the street, and cast stones at him, whereupon he would put down his pot, and cast stones at them, till he had assured his way; then would he return to carry home the pot. And what is more, although he was a good bibber of wine, yet would he never touch it till leave was given to him. It is about as true as the account of the habits of the genus given by a distinguished French author. He says that they live in greater or smaller troops in the forests; their food consists of insects, and they also eat little fishes, mollusks (shellfish), and other animal substances. When they are a little way from the coast they sometimes come down to the beach by the sea-side and collect such things as oysters, and they get at the inside by breaking the shells between stones. Most of the species live far away from such luxuries, and one and all are vegetarians, as a rule, and eat an insect or suck an egg or two as the exception.
The Coaita, or Quata, is large for an Ateles, and is covered with long, coarse hair, of a glossy black colour, the under part at the groin being without any. The hair of the head is directed forwards, and conceals the ears, which have no lobe, and the face is of a reddish flesh-colour. It is an intelligent animal, and shows much curiosity when anything new is seen in its vicinity. All the agility of the genus is to be witnessed in its climbing and swinging from tree to tree; and it has no thumbs. They live in Surinam and in the Brazils. Bates, when living on the Lower Amazon, saw much of this Monkey, or Coaita, as he properly terms it. He describes it as a large black Monkey, covered with coarse hair, and having the prominent parts of the face of a tawny, flesh-coloured hue. Moreover, he found that the natives esteemed its flesh very much, and the military commandant of the place used to send out a hunter every week to shoot one for his table. “One day,” writes this author, “I went out on a Coaita hunt, borrowing a negro slave of a friend to show me the way. On the road I was much amused by the conversation of my companion. He was a tall, handsome negro, about forty years of age, with a staid, courteous demeanour, and a deliberate manner of speaking. He told me he was a native of Congo, and the son of a great chief, or king. He narrated the events of a great battle between his father’s and some other tribe, in which he was taken prisoner, and sold to the Portuguese slave-dealers. When in the deepest part of a ravine we heard a rustling sound in the trees overhead, and Manuel 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 only, unfortunately, wounded it in the belly. It fell with a crash headlong about twenty or thirty feet, and then caught a branch with its tail, and remained suspended in mid air. Before I could reload it recovered itself, and scrambled nimbly to the topmost branches, out of the reach of a fowling-piece, and we could perceive the poor thing apparently probing the wound with its fingers.” He states that “Coaitas are more frequently kept in a tame state than any other Monkey. The Indians are fond of them as pets, and the women often suckle them when young at their breasts! They become attached to their masters, and will sometimes follow them to a considerable distance. I once saw a ridiculously tame Coaita. It was an old female, and had accompanied its owner—a trader on the river—on all his voyages. By way of giving me a specimen of its intelligence and feeling, its master set to and rated it soundly, calling it scamp, heathen, thief, and so forth, all through the vocabulary of Portuguese vituperation. The poor Monkey, seated on the ground, seemed to be in sore trouble at this display of anger. It began by looking earnestly at him, then it whined, and lastly rocked its body to and fro with emotion, crying piteously, and passing its long, gaunt arms continually over its forehead, for this was its habit when excited, and the front of the head was worn quite bald in consequence. At last her master altered his tone—‘It’s all a lie, my old woman, you’re an angel, a flower, a good, affectionate old creature,’ and so forth. Immediately the poor Monkey ceased its wailing, and soon after came over to where the man sat.” The disposition of the Coaita is mild in the extreme. It has none of the painful restless vivacity of the Cebus, and no trace of the surly, untamable temper of the Howlers. Bates says it is an arrant thief, and that it shows considerable cunning in pilfering small articles of clothing, which it conceals in its sleeping-place. The natives of the Upper Amazon procure the Coaita when full grown by shooting it with the blow-pipe and poisoned darts, and restoring life by putting a little salt (the antidote to the poison with which the darts are tipped) in its mouth. The animals thus caught become tame forthwith. Two females were once kept at the Jardin des Plantes, in Paris, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire says they rarely quitted each other, remaining most part of the time in close embrace, folding their tails round each other’s bodies; they took their meals together, and never squabbled over their favourite fruit.
The same traveller when once very hard up for food was obliged to kill a white-whiskered Coaita, and cook it. He writes:—“I thought the meat the best flavoured I had ever tasted. It resembled beef, but had a richer and sweeter taste. We smoke-dried the joints, and the last one was an arm with the clenched fist. This I used with great frugality, hanging it between meals on a nail in the cabin, and nothing but the hardest necessity could have driven me to an act so closely resembling cannibalism.”
COAITA.