The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1880-10-02
MONKEYS IN INDIA.


men, and are the playmates of their
children, the Hindoos have grown fond
of them, and the four-handed folk parti-
cipate in all their simple household rites.
In the early morning, when the peasant
goes out to yoke his oxen, and the crow
wakes up and the dog stretches himself
and shakes off the dust in which he slept
all night, the old monkey creeps down
the peepul tree, only half awake, and
yawns and looks about him, puts straw
in his mouth and scratches himself con-
templatively. Then one by one the
whole family come slipping down the
tree trunk, and they all yawn and look
about and scratch. But they are sleepy
and peevish and the youngsters get cnffed
for nothing, and begin to think life dull.
Yet the toilet has to be performed, and
whether they like it or not, the young
ones are sternly pulled up, one by one,
to their mother to undergo the process.
The scene, though repeated exactly every
morning, loses nothing of its comicality,
and the monkey brats seem all to be in
the joke of "taking in ma NINA" But
mamma was young herself not very long
ago, and treats each ludicrous affectation
of suffering with the profoundest uncon-
Germ, and as she dismisses one cleaned"
youngster with a cuff, stretches out her
hand for the next ones tail or leg in
the most business like manner possible.
The youngsters know their turn quite
well. As each feels the moment arrive
it throws itself on its stomach as if over
whelmed with apprehension, and others
meanwhile sitting their satisfaction at
the way so-and-so is doing it, and the
instant the maternal paw is extended to
grasp the tail, the subject of the next ex-
pertinent utters a piercing shrek, and
throwing it's arms forward in the dust,
allows itself to be dragged along limp
and helpless carcass, winking all the time,
no doubt at its brothers and sisters, at
the way it is imposing on the old lady.
But the old lady will stand no nonsense,
and turning the child right side up, pro-
ceeds to put it to rights, takes the kinks
out of its tail and the knots out of its fur,
pokes it's fingers into it's ears and looks
at each of its toes, the irrepressible brat
all the time wearing on his face an
absurd expression of hopeless and incur.
able grief, those who have been already
cleansed looking on with delight at the
screaming farce, and those who are wait
ing wearing becoming aspect of enormous
gravity. The old lady, however, has hel
joke, too, which is to cuff each youngstel
before she let's it go, and nimble as he
offspring are, she generally, to her credi
be it said, manages to "fetch them on
on the ears" before they are out of reach
The father, meanwhile, sits gravely witt
his back to all these domestic matters
waiting for breakfast. Presently tn
mats before the hut doors are pushe
down, and women, with brass vessels i
their hands, come out, and while the
seour the pots and pans with dust, ez
change between songs the compliments {
the morning. The monkeys by this tim
have come closer to the preparations fe
food and sit solemnly, household
household, watching every movemen
Hindoos do not hurry themselves in an,
thing they do, but the monkey has plent
patience, and in the end, when the GRO
has stolen little, and the dog has ha
his morsel, and the children are all sati
he'd, the fragments of the meal a
thrown out on the ground for the ''bhu
der ogue, monkey people, and it is SO,
discussed, the mother feeding the bal
before she herself eats -[London Tel.