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
evidently the object; and I am quite sure that I should have been torn
to pieces between them, but for the timely approach of a person who
issued from a lofty and handsome edifice on the road side, attended by
a train of preacher-monkeys, of which he was the chief.
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