Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 09 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
The Ouarine and the Alouate are the largest four-handed animals
belonging to the New Continent: they surpass the size of the largest
monkey, and approach that of the baboon. They have prehensile tails
and are consequently of the sapajous family, in which they hold a very
distinguished rank, not only with regard to stature, but also by
voice, which resounds like a drum, and may be heard at a very great
distance. Marcgrave informs us, "that every morning and evening the
ouarines assemble in the woods; that one among them seats himself on
an elevated place, makes a sign with his hand to the rest to seat
themselves round him; that as soon as he sees them all seated, he
begins an oration with so quick and loud a voice as to be heard at
a great distance, and it might be imagined they were all making a
noise together, but during the whole time the rest keep a profound
silence; that when he has ended, he makes a signal to the others to
reply, and immediately they all set up a cry together, till such time
as by another sign with his hand, he orders them to be silent, and
which they instantly obey; that then the first renews his discourse,
or song, which, when finished, and the others have paid the utmost
attention to it, the whole assembly break up." These circumstances,
of which Marcgrave says, he has many times been an eye-witness, may
possibly be exaggerated, and seasoned a little with the marvellous. The
whole, probably, is only founded on the frightful noise these animals
make; they have in their throats a kind of bony drum, in the cavity of
which the sound of the voice thickens, encreases, and forms a kind
of howling reverberation; upon which account these sapajous have been
distinguished from the rest by the name of howlers. We have never seen
the ouarine, but we have the skin and the dried foetus of an alouate,
in which the instrument of the loud noise he makes, that is to say,
the bone of the throat, is very apparent. According to Marcgrave,
the face of the ouarine is broad, the eyes black and sparkling, the
ears short and round, and a tail naked at the extremity, which holds
firmly whatever it encircles; the hair of the body is black, long,
and glossy; it is much the longest under the chin, and forms a kind
of round beard; the hair on the hands, feet, and a part of the tail,
is brown. The female is of the same colour as the male, and only
differs from him in being smaller. The females carry their young on
their backs, and thus loaded leap from branch to branch and from tree
to tree. The young ones clasp the mother round the narrowest part of
the body with the hands and arms, and thus remain firmly fastened,
while she keeps in motion. These animals are so wild and mischievous,
that they can neither be tamed nor subdued; they bite dreadfully, and
although they are not among the carnivorous animals, yet they excite
fear by their frightful voice and ferocious air. As they live only on
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