The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-10-09
The Monkey in its Domestic Relations.

In India, where the monkeys live
among men, and are the playmates of
their children, the Hindoos have grown
fond of them, and the four-handed folk
participate 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 has slept all night, the old monkey
creeps down the peepul tree, only half
awake, and yawns and looks about him,
puts a straw in his mouth and scratches
himself contemplatively. Then one by
one the whole family come slipping
down the tree trunk, and they all yawn
and look about and scratch. But they
aresleepy and peevish and the youngsters
get cuffed 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 I'M
dergo the process. The scene, though
repeated exactly every morning, loses
nothing of its delightful comicality, and
the monkey brats seem all to be in the
Joke of stalking in mamma" But
mamma was young herself not very long
ago, and treats each ludicrous affecta-
ton of suffering with the profoundest
.unconcern, and, as she dismisses one
''cleaned" youngsterwith cuff, stretches
out her hand for the next ones tail or
leg in the most business-like and serious
manner possible. The youngsters know
their turn quite well. As each feels the
moment arrive it throws itself on its
stomach as if overwhelmed with appre-
hension, the others meanwhile sitting
their satisfaction at the way "so-and-so
is doing it," and the instant the mater
nal paw is extended to grasp
the tail, the subject of the next
experiment utters q piercing shrek,
and throwing its 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, proceeds to put it to rights,
! takes the kinks out of its tail and the
knots out of its fur, pokes it's fingers
into its ears and looks at each of his
1 toes, the irrepressible brat all the time
wearing on his face an absurd express
sion of hopeless and incurable grief,
those who have been already cleansed
/ looking on with delight at the screaming
farce, and those who are waiting wear
ing a becoming aspect of enormous
gravity. The old lady, however, has her
joke too, which is to cuff each youngster
before she lets it go, and nimble as her
offspring are she generally, to her credit
be it said, manages TO t'fetch them one
on the ears - before they are out of reach.
The father, meanwhile, sits gravely with
his back to all these domestic matters,
waiting for breakfast. Presently the
mats before the hut doors are pushed
down, and women, with brass vessels in
their hands, come out; and while they
scour the pots with dust, exchange be-
tween songs the compliments of the
morning. The monkeys by this time
have come closer to the preparations for
food, and sit solemnly, household by
household, watching every movement.
Hindoos do not hurry themselves in any
thing they do, but the monkey has plenty
of patience, and in the end, when the
crow has stolen little, and the dog has
had its morsel, and the children are all
satisfied, the fragments of the meal are
thrown out on the ground for the "bhun-
der ogue," the monkey people, and it is
soon discussed, the mother feeding the
baby before she herself eats.-L0ndon
Telegraph.