Palisot de Beauvois; but, in the absence of any confirmation, it
has come to be discredited. From the way the fact has been
related, it would appear that it had been merely derived from the
report of natives, and had not been witnessed by the narrators.
Count Langsdorff, in his Expedition into the Interior of Brazil,
states that he totally disbelieved the story. I found the
circumstance to be quite a novelty to the residents hereabout.
The Mygales are quite common insects: some species make their
cells under stones, others form artistical tunnels in the earth,
and some build their dens in the thatch of houses. The natives
call them Aranhas carangueijeiras, or crab-spiders. The hairs
with which they are clothed come off when touched, and cause a
peculiar and almost maddening irritation. The first specimen that
I killed and prepared was handled incautiously, and I suffered
terribly for three days afterwards. I think this is not owing to
any poisonous quality residing in the hairs, but to their being
short and hard, and thus getting into the fine creases of the
skin. Some Mygales are of immense size. One day I saw the
children belonging to an Indian family, who collected for me with
one of these monsters secured by a cord round its waist, by which
they were leading it about the house as they would a dog.

The only monkeys I observed at Cameta were the Couxio (Pithecia
Satanas)--a large species, clothed with long brownish-black hair-
-and the tiny Midas argentatus. The Couxio has a thick bushy
tail, and the hair of the head, which looks as if it had been
carefully combed, sits on it like a wig. It inhabits only the
most retired parts of the forest, on the terra firma, and I
observed nothing of its habits. The little Midas argentatus is
one of the rarest of the American monkeys; indeed, I have not