and honey; and the parrot had a long instrument near him on the ground,
which I afterwards learned was a fowling-piece. They talked a strange
jargon of different intonation, like that of the respective chatter of
the grey and the green parrots. Both seemed to complain, and, by the
expression of their ugly and roguish faces, to interrogate each other.
As soon as they went away, I endeavoured to mutter to myself the sounds
they had uttered, but could retain only two phrases. The one had been
spoken by the ape, and ran thus--"Shure it was for my sweet sowl's
sake, jewel;" the other was--"Eh, sirs, it was aw' for the love of the
siller." I was extremely amused by my acquisition; and, being convinced
that I was now qualified to present myself at the settlement, was about
to descend from my altitude, when the two strangers returned: they had
come back for the gun, which they had left behind them. As they picked
it up, it went off, and I was startled into one of my loudest screams.
The strangers looked at me with great delight, he whom I likened to the
parrot exclaiming--"Weel, mon, what brought you here?" I answered in his
own words, for want of better--"Eh, sirs, it was aw' for the love of
the siller." He dropped his piece, and fled in consternation, calling
lustily--"Its auld clooty himsen, mon, its auld Horny, I tell ye; come
awa, come awa." His friend, who seemed more acquainted with our species,
encouraged him to return; and offering me some fruit from his basket,
said--"Why, Poll, you cratur, what brought you so far from home?" I
endeavoured to imitate his peculiar tone, and replied--"Why thin it was
for my sweet sowl's sake, jewel."--"Why then," said my interlocutor,
coolly (for I never forgot his words) "that bird bates cockfighting."
They now both endeavoured to catch me. It was all I wanted, and I
perched on the preaching-monkey's wrist, while he took up the basket
in his left hand, and in this easy and commodious style of travelling,
we proceeded. On approaching the settlement, a fierce dispute arose
between the friends; of which, by each tearing me from the other, I was