The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-02-03
The Monkey In Its Domestic Relati ons.

London Telegraph.
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 house.
hold rites. In the early morning, when
the peasant goes out to yoke his oxen,
stretches himself and shakes off the
dust in which he has slept last night,
the old monkey creeps down the peepul
tree, only half awake, and yawns and
looks about him, puts a strawin his
mouth, and scratches himself contem-
platively. 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 cutfed
for nothing, and begin to think life dull.
Yet the toilet has to be performed, and
whether, they like il 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 de-
lightful comicality, and the monkey
brats seem all to be in the joke of ''tak-
ing in mamma" But mamma was
young herself not very long ago, and
lICSttS StCh luulClOuS ttnSCllOu VI SulltI-
ing with the profoundest unconcern,
and, as she dismisses one ''cleansed''
youngster with cuff, stretches out her
hand for the next ones tail OF leg in
the most business-like 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
overwhelmed with apprehension, the
others meanwhile sitting their satisfac-
ton 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 experiment utters piercing
skriek, and, throwing its arms forward
in the dust, allows itself to be dragged
along a limp and helpless carcass. wink
ING 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 knots out of its fur, pokes its fingers
into its ears and looks at each OF his
toes, the irrepressible brat all the time
W ~. = on his ice an expression of
i.upei, IS and incurable grici, those WHO
have been already ciyarsed looking on
those who are waiting wearing u be-
coming aspect 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 between songs the compli-
ments Of the morning. The monkeys
by this time have come closer to the
preparations for food, and sit solemnly,
household by household, watching ey-
cry movement. Hindoos do not hurry
themselves in anything they do, but the
monkey has plenty of patience, and in
the end, when the crowd has stolen a
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 'sblunder orgue,"
the monkey people, and it is soon dis
cussed, the mother feeding the baby
before she herself eats.