Then he went out to his door again, and merrily did

sing,

"Come hither, hither, pretty fly, with the pearl and silver wing;

Your robes are green and purple—there's a crest upon your head;

Your eyes are like the diamond bright, but mine are dull as lead."

VI.

Alas, alas! how very soon this silly little fly, Hearing his wily, flattering words, came slowly flitting by ;

With buzzing wings she hung aloft, then near and nearer drew,

Thinking only of her brilliant eyes, and green and purple hue ;

Thinking only of her crested head-poor foolish thing!-At last

Up jumped the cunning spider, and fiercely held her

fast.

VII.

He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dis

mal den,

Within his little parlour-but she ne'er came out

again!

-And now, dear little children, who may this story

read,

To idle, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne'er give

heed:

Unto an evil counsellor, close heart, and ear, and

eye,

And take a lesson from this tale, of the Spider and the Fly.

ANECDOTES OF MONKEYS.

BY THE OLD SAILOR.

Men laugh at apes; they men contemn;
For what are we, but apes to them?

GAY.

THERE is something extremely amusing, aye and instructive too, in witnessing the curious and cunning tricks of the monkey tribe. I have watched them for hours unobserved, not only in their educated state, when they have become polished by mixing in the society of man, but also in their native wildness, when they sported among the green leaves and skipped from bough to bough, with wonderful agility and ease; particularly the female, who would catch her young offspring in her arm, and run up a tree with surprising rapidity, at the first approach of danger. It is also most laughable to see them instruct their little ones in all the habits and drollery so peculiarly belonging to their species, and which they are not backward in learning.

The negroes have strange ideas respecting monkeys; and as they themselves have strong apprehensions of an evil spirit, which they call "Jumbo," so they imagine that the monkeyish fraternity have a similar dread, and always cover their eyes with their paw when they go to sleep, lest the spectre should appear, to terrify them; certain it is, that monkeys do cover their eyes whilst sleeping in the day-time, but it is only for the purpose of excluding the light. Many negroes, and even the Indians in some parts, view them as a race of beings whose ancestors, in former times, had passions and feelings like themselves; but for some enormous crime against the evil spirit, had been condemned, with succeeding generations, to their present form. The negroes often say "Da monkey dere, him sabby too much! S'pose him speak little bit, he fraid, for massy gib him plenty work;" meaning that the monkeys would talk, only they were afraid of being put to labour.

I well remember the first time I saw them in the woods, amongst the thick clusters of the green cocoa-nuts, or peeping from underneath the long feather-like leaves that crowned the summit of the trees. I was then a youngster in a ship-of-war which had convoyed a fleet of Indiamen, and we put into St. Iago, one of the Cape de Verd islands, to obtain a supply of water.

The party employed on this duty, had a tent erected on shore, and one of the young midshipmen being overpowered with fatigue and the oppressive heat, pulled off a part of his dress, and laid himself down to sleep. On awaking, he found his coat, waistcoat, boots, and cocked-hat had disappeared, nor could they be recovered, after a strict inquiry and search. Suspicion attached to the Portuguese, and a complaint was laid before the governor of the island, who instituted a rigid examination, but with no better success, and the young gentleman was compelled to put up with his loss.

A few days afterwards, a party of the officers set out for the opposite side of the island, on a sporting excursion, to shoot wild goats, and to collect fruit and vegetables for their mess, and in this trip, I was permitted to accompany them.

Never shall I forget the pleasure I experienced at forcing our way through the entangled guavabushes, clustering with ripe fruit, whilst the branches of the cocoa-nut tree waving above, screened us from the scorching rays of the sun. Sometimes a cocoa-nut would come rattling about our ears, and the immediate chattering of the monkeys would point out the culprit that had hurled it down. Having accomplished their mischief, away