VANITY FAIR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 73, Issue 438, 2 December 1930, Page 2

VANITY FAIR

JUNGLE NIGHT SONG.

(British Cuiana).

The soft tropical night Was filled with the night song, the Weird, wonderful chant of the howling monkeys. The frogs, toads, birds and jaguar had played a prelude, their discordant, harsh tones blending together in a not unmusical whole, serving to prepare the ear for these wonderful performers whose rich organlike notes swelled out, -filling the night, malting the Very air vibrate with their strange melody. They started high and clear, full and soft, Hite the longdrawn high note of a wolf howling at fl distance, holding this note for perhaps ten or fifteen seconds, then the song slowly, smoothly dropping down the scale for about four full tones without a break, swelling with a great crescendo till the lowest note was like the mighty chord of a church organ. This low note was held for a few seconds, then slowly rose io the original high note, diminishing as it rose, till it was again the thin minor cry of the wolf pack singing to the moon. This high note was again held for ten or fifteen seconds, and then once more dropping into the grand crescendo; then up, Io repeat the entire performance over and over, with no perceptible break, for perhaps twenty minutes, when it would begin to Waver and break, as some of the band would weaken and drop out. Then with harsh, forceful grunts the leader would start them up afresh, and once more the tremendous song would peal forth.

The second outburst would last for no more than eight or ten minutes, and though the big red leader would beat and grunt the chorus would soon die away in soft mutterings. Perhaps an hour or two later the great wave of sound would again Well up, but from a different point in the jungle, for the monkeys always travel between songs, seeking trees with ripe fruit or hunting insects or birds' eggs as they go. . . Coming to the big palm, the leader led the band up the rough trunk 1° die crown, sal down on one of the big leaf stems, threw back his head, opened his mouth and the first faint, hardly perceptible note of the night song stole forth. The others quickly joined in and the song swelled out in all its great volume. The leader of the band Was about as large as a good-sized bull terrier, and the biggest of the young males was nearly as large. The old females were somewhat smaller, being not larger than big house cats, while the youngest female Was not more than half as large. Their tails were prehensile and of great use to them as they swung along among the tree-tops, leaping from branch to branch, or running along the great vines which stretch everywhere i hrough the jungle, forming aerial roadways for the people of the tree-tops.—From "Under the Roof of the Jungle," by Charles Livingston Bull.