The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-12-03
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 had slept last night, the old monkey
creeps down the peepui tree, only half
awake, and yawns and looks about him,
himself contemElatively. 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 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 cne, to their mother to under
go the process. The scene, though re-
peated exactly every morning, loses
nothing OF it's delightful comicality, and
the monkey brats seem all to be in the
joke of 'staking in mamma" But NAM
ma was young herself not very long ago,
and treats each ludicrous affection of
suffering with the profoundest uncon
Germ, and, as she dismisses one cleans
ed' young ter with cuff, stretches out
her hand for the next ones tail or leg in
the most business-1ike and serious man
ner 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, the others
meanwhile sitting their satisfaction at
i, nd IS II
instant the maria paw is extended t o
grasp the tail, the subject of the next ex-
pertinent uttsrs a piercing shrek, and,
throwing its arms forward in the dust.
allows itself to be dragged along a limp
and helpless carcass, w1nking all the
time, no doubt, at it's brothers and sis
ters 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 knots
out of its fur, pokes it's fingers into its
ears and looks at each of it's toes, the ir
repressible brat all the time wearing on
his face an absurd expression of hope
less and incurable grief, those who have
been already cleansed looking on with
delight at the screaming farce, and those
who are waiting wearing becoming as
pect of enormous gravity.
The old lady, however, has her joke,
too, which is to cuff each youngster be-
fore she lets it go, and, nimble as her
offspring are, she generally, to her credit
be it said, manages to ''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 crowd has stolen little, and the dog
has had his morsel, and the children are
all fatisfed, the fragments of the meal
are thrown out on the ground for the
''blunder orgue," the monkey people,
and it is soon discussed, the mother
feeding the baby before she herself
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