By Way
Of Convincing Us, However, Of His Sporting Knowledge, He Added That
They Were In The Habit Of Living
Entirely on fruit; and he was sadly
put out when F. and I both burst into laughter at the idea
Of an old
woodcock with his bill stuck into a juicy pear, or perhaps enjoying a
pomegranate for breakfast. Shortly after, we came suddenly upon quite
a new feature in the scene - a strange innovation of liveliness in
the midst of solitude.
At a bend in the road, what should appear almost over our heads but
a troop of about a hundred monkeys, crashing through the firs and
chestnuts, and bounding in eager haste from tree to tree, in their
desire to escape from a party of natives coming from the opposite
direction. They were large brown monkeys, of the kind called lungoors,
standing, some of them, three feet high, and having tails considerably
longer than themselves. Their faces were jet black, fringed with
light grey whiskers, which gave them a most comical appearance.; and
as they jumped along from tree to tree, sometimes thirty and forty
feet, through the air, with their small families following as best
they could, they made the whole forest resound with the crashing of
the branches, and amused us not a little by their aerial line of march.
After crossing a dashing mountain-torrent by a rude bridge of trees
thrown across it, we arrived at the village of Burrumgulla. Here our
guide wanted us to halt in a mud-built native serai, but, with the
recollection of past experience fresh upon us, we declined, preferring
to choose our own ground and pitch our first encampment.
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