Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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It Is The Guvapavi With Grey Hair And A Bluish
Face.
It has the orbits of the eyes and the forehead as white as snow,
a peculiarity which at first sight distinguishes it from the Simia
capucina, the Simia apella, the Simia trepida, and the other weeping
monkeys hitherto so confusedly described.
This little animal is as
gentle as it is ugly. A monkey of this species, which was kept in the
courtyard of the missionary, would frequently mount on the back of a
pig, and in this manner traverse the savannahs. We have also seen it
upon the back of a large cat, which had been brought up with it in
Father Zea's house.
It was among the cataracts that we began to hear of the hairy man of
the woods, called salvaje, that carries off women, constructs huts,
and sometimes eats human flesh. The Tamanacs call it achi, and the
Maypures vasitri, or great devil. The natives and the missionaries
have no doubt of the existence of this man-shaped monkey, of which
they entertain a singular dread. Father Gili gravely relates the
history of a lady in the town of San Carlos, in the Llanos of
Venezuela, who much praised the gentle character and attentions of the
man of the woods. She is stated to have lived several years with one
in great domestic harmony, and only requested some hunters to take her
back, because she and her children (a little hairy also) were weary of
living far from the church and the sacraments.
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