Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
- Page 106 of 777 - First - Home
He Says He Has Seen What He Imagines May
Have Been Seen By Others.
Every savage is a hunter, and the stories of
hunters borrow from the imagination in proportion as the animals, of
which they boast the artifices, are endowed with a high degree of
intelligence.
Hence arise the fictions of which foxes, monkeys, crows,
and the condor of the Andes, have been the subjects in both
hemispheres.
The araguatos are accused of sometimes abandoning their young, that
they may be lighter for flight when pursued by the Indian hunters. It
is said that mothers have been seen removing their young from their
shoulders, and throwing them down to the foot of the tree. I am
inclined to believe that a movement merely accidental has been
mistaken for one premeditated. The Indians have a dislike and a
predilection for certain races of monkeys; they love the viuditas, the
titis, and generally all the little sagoins; while the araguatos, on
account of their mournful aspect, and their uniform howling, are at
once detested and abused. In reflecting on the causes that may
facilitate the propagation of sound in the air during the night, I
thought it important to determine with precision the distance at
which, especially in damp and stormy weather, the howling of a band of
araguatos is heard. I believe I obtained proof of its being
distinguished at eight hundred toises distance. The monkeys which are
furnished with four hands cannot make excursions in the Llanos; and it
is easy, amidst vast plains covered with grass, to recognize a
solitary group of trees, whence the noise proceeds, and which is
inhabited by howling monkeys.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 106 of 777
Words from 28531 to 28806
of 211397
