The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1883-01-20
M iserll
History of Joking.

! often oeeh remarked. In my your
| had frequent occasion to observe
tho lively behavior OF ministers
and WAS not little puzzled some
times to reconcile the solemnity q,
their sermons with tue gayety Of
their anecdotes. Some of them
had IA rare stock of comic incidents
which had taken place at weddings
christenings, and even at funeral%
1t was ff2n clerical lips that !
first heard tho anneedote OF man
in the gallery dropping piece OF
tobacco into the open mouth of a
person asleep in the pew just below
him. This story called forth others
OF the same kind, from which it ap.
peared that the most of the com.
pany had been troubled in the pull
pit to keep from laughing.
Manners change; but human ma
ture remains very much tho same
age after age. When afterwards |
looked into tho origin and history
of joking, | encountered at every
step the same curious lneongruity
The Oldest recorded comcalities are
found i'll conjunction with religious
rites and beliefs. 1t seems as If
nature, abhorring extremes, and
tending always to an equilibrium,
oompels men who deal in the most
serious subjects to seek relief in the
ludicrous.
No human record goes SO tar
back as some of the sacred writings
of the Hindus, and in Their mythol-
ogy there Is a strong ingredient OF
the humorous and amusing. A
British officer, Major Edward Moor,
published some years ago large
number OF pictures copied from an
Gent Hindu engravings, illustrating
their religion. The most curious of
these exhibited the adventures OF
their comic deity, Krishns, a Don
Juan OF Il god, who roamed around
the world upon an elephant entire
y composer "a Uuo UUutes Oh uiC
merry damsols who accompanied
him.
When krishna, We are told, wish
ed TO travel by land, the young la.
dies instantly wroathed their agile
forms into the shape Of an elephant.
When he desired to float over the
tranquil water, they made them
selves into large swan; while for
short journeys they extemporized u
beautiful paIaquln, of which the seat,
the handles and the bearers were
all composed of the same material
themselves. All sorts of comic ad,
ventures are related of this iovial
deity, who to this day amuses the
patient and docile Hindus by the
spectacle of a being who enjoys I'M
bounded license, who is absolutely
free from every one of the irksom c
restraints under which moltals pass
their lives.
1t is the same contrast which
makes great part Of the pleasure
we derive from such works as Pick
wick and Don Qulxote, IN which We
see amusing personages ranging the
world in search of interesting ad-
ventures, while we are confined to
our round of duty.
Coming down on the tide of time
to Egypt, we find IN the ancient
monuments similar conjunctions OF
the serious and the comic. The
most frequent kind of burlesque EN-.
ployed by the ancient Egyptians
was to represent animals playing the
part Of human beings. Thus, we
see a lion seated upon a throne like
a king, receiving an Offering from a
fox, who personates a high priest.
On one papyrus, preserved in the
British Museum, IS "A lion preparing
to convert a dead ASS into mummy,
with many other similar devices.
The ancient tombs abound IN comic
pictures even the royal sepulchres
contain such. In the tomb of q
king at Thebes there is a picture OF
an ass and lion singing, and &C.
companying themselves on instru.
ments.
The most remarkable instance of
this kind, perhaps, is large pic.
ture in which fortress, garrisoned
by cats, is attacked by an army Of
rats. The rats bring a ladder to
tho walls, and are about to scale
them, wbilo one rat Of great size,
riding in war.chariot drawn by
dogs, after having pierced several
cats with arrows, is swinging his
battle-axe in gallant style. There
are reasons Tor believing that this
picture, and many similar ones, we're