Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-11-18
Monkeys in India.

In India, where the monkeys live among
men, and are the playmates of their chill
dren, the Hindoos have grown so fond Of
them that the handed folk participate
in all their simple household rites. In the
early morning, when the peasant goes out
to yoke his plough, 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 from the
peepultree, only half awake, and yawns
and looks about him, puts a straw in his
mouth, and stcratches 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 cuffed for nothing, and be-
gin 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 regularly
repeated every morning, loses nothing of
its delightful comicality, and the monkey
brats never tire of the joke OF s'taking in
mamma" But mamma was young herself
not SO very long ago, and treats each ludi-
crous affectatiOn of suffering with pro-
foundest unccncern, and as she dismiss s one
cleaned 'youngster with cuff stretches out
her hand for the next ones tail Or leg in the
most business-like and serious manner pos
sible. The youngsters know their turns
quite we'll, and as each one sees the moment
arriving it throws itself on its stomach, as
if overwhelmed with apprehension, the
others meanwhile stifiing their laughter
at the capital way so-and-so is doing it,
and the instant the maternal paw is extend
ed to grasp it's tail the subject of the next
experiment utters a dolorous wall, and
throwing its arms forward in the dust al
lows itself to be dragged along, limp
and helpless carcass, winking all the time,
no doubt, at its brothers and sisters, at the
way it imposes 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 its fingers into its ears, and looks
| at each of its toes, the inexpressible brat
| all the time wearing on its face an absurd
expression of hopeless and incurable grief
Those who have been already cleaned look
on with delight at the screaming farce.
| while those who are waiting wear becom-
| ing aspect of enormous gravity. The old
lady, however, has her joke, too, which is
to cuff every youngster before she lets it
go; and nimble as her offspring are, she
generally, to her credit be it said, manages
| to give each of them box on the ears be-
I fore it is out of reach. The father, mean.
while, sits gravely with his back to all these
domestic matters, waiting for breakfast.
The monkeys by this time have come
closer to the preparations for food, and si
solemnly, household by household, watch
ing every movement. Hindoos do no
hurry themselves in anything they do, bu
the monkey has lots of time to spare ant
plenty of patience, and in the end, afte
i the crow has stolen little, and the dog ha:
had its morsel, and the children are all sat
isfed, the poor fragments of the meal ar
thrown out on the ground for the ''bhunder
logue" (the monkey people,, and it is 500,
discussed, the mother feeding the baby be
fore she eats herself.
When every house has thus in turn beer
visited, and no chance of further ''out-doo
relief" remains, the monkeys go off to tn
we'll. The women are all here again, draw
ing the water for the day, and the monkey
sit and wait, the old ones in front, senten
tious and serious, and the youngsters roll
ing about in the dust behind them, till q
last some girl sees the creatures waiting
and Gin the name of Ram" spills a lota
full of water in a hollow of the ground
and the monkeys como round it in a circle
and stoop down and drink, with their tail
all curled up over their backs like notes o
Interrogation. There is no contention O
jostling. A forward child gets a box OF
the ear. perhaps, but each Las it has sat
isfed its thirst, quietly steps out of tn
circle, and wipes its mouth. The day thu
luck may bring them.
The grain dealers shop tempts them t
, loiter, but the experience of previous al
, tempts makes theft hopeless; for tn
: bunnya, with all his years, is very nimbl
: on his legs, and an astonishing good she