Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-03-22
The Pink FInmlngoes, Story.

The Pink FlamingOes' Story.
There have lately arrived at the Zoo
lagical Gardens in Paris pair of beau
tiful pink flamingoes. They have been
brought from Egypt, and are an object
of great interest TO the Parisans, who
do no not cease to admire their wonder
full grace and beauty, as they pose
dreamily all day. now bending their
long necks almost into the shape of
figure 8, now standing upon one leg
and now on the other, and opening and
shutting their bright eyes, which shine
like buttons of gold.
The famingoes are great drcamers.
Standing for hours idle and awake on
one of their long legs, these pink-wng-
ed Egyptian birds seem to be travers-
ing in their minds the events of centur-
les. 1t is possible 10 imagine them, if
they could answer the question, ''What
are you thinking aboutP" responding TO
the Partisan with sucn an account of
their meditatiOns as this:
"What are we thinking aboutp'
Why we are dreaming of Egypt,
whence we came. and where the sight
of our rose-colored wings rs we sailed
down over the level land like so many
beams cnt of from the sun rise. OF the
rising OF the Nile, of the coming of the
flood upon which their harvests and
livelihood. depend.
"But it was not of the Egypt that we
left there, of that land of poverty and
distress. where the poor husbandman
wonders what small part of the harvest
will be left to him by the taxgatherer,
that we were dreaming just now. We
were thinking what the dear land by the
Nile must have been in the time
that our grandfathers often told us of,
as we winged our flight from Ethiopia;
of the time when our tribe were gods
there.
Goods? Yes, the famngoes were
once gods upon the Nile. The fronts
of the temples that still stand there will
tell you as much. They bear the carv-
ed pictures of flamingoes just like US
the sort who have wings tipped with
purple, and who have eyes of gold.
How did we come TO be gods?
'lou know the early Egyptians, who
had not the true religion that YOU pos
sess, set about making religion of
their own out of the living things about
| them.
They found that we and the wading
| ibis always came just before the rising
of the River Nile We came, in truth,
because we knew that the rising of tho
river brought us small reptiles of var
! ious sorts that we wanted to eat.
But the superstilous Egyptians, after
II time grew TO believe that we and the
| ibis came to tell them that the flood in
the river was coming. and that we
really had hand IN its rising.
80 they made deities of us, as they
made deities of other animals that they
believed had something to do with their
welfare. They made gods of the very
reptiles that came down the Nile. But
we did not care for that since they gave
us plenty of these same reptiles to eat,
and not only spared us from harm, but
worshIped us with alteration.
"Those were delightful days for the
ilamingoes! The old birds upon the
Nile tell their young nothing else, and
we, rs we balance here with bent necks
through the long day, for you to star e
at, we dream of nothing else.
Your Christian religion came and pre-
vailed, because it was not of the man s
making 1t did away forever with the
divinity of birds and beasts in Egypt
alas for the ilamingoes! Another re.
ligion now prevails there; but this new
faith has learned from you Christians
that there is but one God-the God who
made men and, flamingoes TOO; and the
animals are no longer worshiped there.
The Nile still rises just rs it did,
though no offerings are made to the bis
and the tlamingoes TO bring its flood;
and we still come each year to Egypt,
just as we did when we were worship
ell there. 1t is the law of God that we
should do so. We obey that not our
own wills.
ut was there that you found and took
us, to bring us here. You are kind to
us, and give us as much good food to
eat as did the ancient Egyptians who
worshiped us; but we like to dream all
day long OF the time-those days long
ago-when our tribe came soaring down
the Nile, like CLEANS of sunlight, to
make the hearts of the Egyptians glad
and to receive their alteration. -
Youths Conhd1iiOR