Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-12
MONKEYS IN INDIA.

In India, where the monkeys live
among men, and are the playmates of
their children, the Hindoos have grown
so fond Of them that the four-handed
folk participate in all their simple
household rites. In the early morning,
when the peasant goes out to yoke his
pillow, 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 scratches him
self 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 are sleepy and pee
wish, 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 undergo the process.
The scene, though regularly repeated
every morning, loses nothing of its de-
hghtful comicality, and the monkey
brats never tiretof the joke of taking
in mamma" But mamma was young
herself not very long ago, and treats
each ludicrous afectation of suffering
with profoundest unconcern, and, as she
lismisses the Cleaned" youngster with
a cuff, stretches out her hand for the
next ones tail or leg in the most bust
ness-like and serious manner possible.
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 sitting their
laughter at the capital way so-and-so is
doing it, and the instant the maternal
paw is extended to grasp its tail the
subject Of the next experiment utters a
vail, 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 nom
sense, 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 its fingers into its
ears, and looks at each of its toes, the
inexpressible brat all the time wearing
on it's face an absurd expression of hope
less and incprable grief. Those who
have been already cleaned look on with
delight at the screaming farce, while
those who are waiting wear becoming
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 a box on
the ears before it is out of reach. The
father, meanwhile, sits gravely with his
back to all these domestic matters, wait
ing for breakfast.
The monkeys by this time have come
closer to the preparations for food, and
sat solemnly, household by household,
watching every movement. Hindoos do
not hurry themselves in anything they
do, but the monkey has lots of time to
spare and plenty Of patience, and in the
end, after the crow has stolen little,
and the dog has had its morsel, and the
children are all satisfied, the poor frag-
ments of the meal are thrown out on the
ground for the "bhunder-logue" (the
monkey people,, and it is soon dis
cussed, the mother feeding the baby be
fore she eats herself.