The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-03-16
New Orleans Picayune.l

the theory lndl nldH III oil MS op'OltNO
as thinking, reasoning animal evolved
from the Simian family, and although l
am not altogether a convert to this the
DRY, don't mind saying that from what
I've seen of the monkey tribe. I'm rath-
er inclined to believe that the species, !
if not related to genus Homo, is at
least the nearest to it in point of INTEL
ligence of all the brute creation, and
if you care to hear it 1 can relate
rather interesting little incident l once
witnessed. which will go far toward
bearing out my contention"
Harry F. tombstone sat talking to a
few friends in the lobby of the Grune-
valid annex, ON a night not long ago,
and as Mr.. tombstone, who is inter-
ested in a large rubber plantation in
Venezuela, has the reputation of being
quite a yarn spinner the group was
more than willing to listen and clamored
for the story.
you know" said Mr.. tombstone, lean
ing back comfortab bly, in his leather
chair, I've seen bit of the world in
my day, and visited quite few out-of-
theway localities. In the autumn or
1894, when l was a young fellow, just
out of Cambridge, / went with a party
of friends for a shooting expedition in
Morocco, one of the Barbary states.
There were four in our party besides
the donkey boys and attendants, and
we journeyed a great distance into the
Atlas mountains and finally reached the
ancient and historic city of Ell Geddar,
which sits in a narrow valley surround
ed by towering mountains on every
hand.
LAS young huntsmen, lacking I'm wis
DOM il was our ambition to bag a few
lions, but it was not until we had quar-
tered in a venera ble-looking stone build
ing. in the street of the Well, in FL
Geddar. that we discovered from our
host that lions were a scarce article in
the locality. Too much mountains for
lions. our ObsequiOus landlord informed
us, but he tried to take the sting from
our disappointment by telling us that
there were lots of leopards, and few
hyenas in the foothills to the north of
the town and any number of Barbary
apes. With a smile he told us that if
we would journey hundred miles eith-
er to the south or east, we would find
lions enough to stock the cages of all the
| menageries in the world, but we had
had our fill of that awful mountain
travel and even looked forward with
dread to our journey back to Fee. so we
told our polite savage-for he was lit
tie better than that-that leOpards and
/ hyenas would do us for a start
''HaZid, our donkey boy, who pretend
ed to know every locality in Africa as
/ he knew the lay of his own house in
I Fee, acted as our guide on our hunting
/ jaunts TO the foothills. Hazid accord
/ ing TO his declaration. was regular
/ encyclopedia of geographical lore, but
/ the truth of the matter was Hazid knew
I as much of FL Geddar and the wild
/ country surrounding ii as we did. and
we had never even heard of the places
/ in school. Mounted on our sure-footed
and patient donkeys we left FL Geddar
one morning at break of day and struck
out for the foothills close to the city.
In taking the gradual ascent through
passes of black rock. we saw no sign of
the larger carnivora, but frequently
from overhead would sound an excited
| chatter, and looking up we could see
lines of queer monkey faces gazing
down upon us from the heights above.
Roy Harding, one of our party. was
for trying a shot at the monkey band
but Hazid, with a string of eastern COM
pliments about yard long, begged him
not to do So Monkeys little children.
insisted Hazid, in his soft voice. 'Pasha
he called US all 'Pasha' as a sort OF
joke, you know-''no shoot him cause
he cry But a little later when the
monkeys, evidently not liking our APP
pearance, began 10 pelt us with stones
and pebbles from their elevated position
and chatter and scream with delight as
We ducked in our saddles, Harding lost
his temper and fired several shots from
his revolver. The shots flew wild. but
they had the effect of sending the mon
key crew scampering and we were trou-
bled no more from them.
"Hazid's brown face wore a broad
grin and he remarked, Monkey Aim nc
want to hurt; Pasha him want laugh
that's ALL. and then Hazid laughed
which sort of ruffied our feelings, for We
felt that for the time we were a stand.
ing joke, not only TO the apes but th'
donkey boy as well.
Along about noon we had penetrated
some distance into the mountains anC
halted on broad, fiat table rock for Oul
luncheon. After luncheon / left my
| companions TO take a little siesta anC
walked to the farthest edge of the rOcl
to have q look around. The rock fel
away in sheer descent of about fift!
feet to a valley, which was encircleC
by mountains. with their face out of tn
northern end by A narrow pass, which
followed a gradual slope. as | afterwarC
learned. to the low forest country
where the leopards had their stalhin;
! ground. The valley was alive will
: apes, the tailless Barbary apes, whicl
of all the larger quadrama are consid
t domesticate, and ] stood gazing at tn
= strange picture in establishment.
could see that one side of the noun
tain was intersected with caves, ant
from the fact that several mother ape
= were seated in the entrances of thes
dark holes, with their progeny gambol
ing about them. | inferred that tn
caves were the homes of the animals
? The caves were about twenty feet fror
> the ground, were fronted with project
, ing shelves of rock and nothing but a.
animal possessed of the agility of
! monkey could reach them.
: In the valley the apes were feedin
= on some vegetable growth, and happ
, band they seemed. They were orderl
and peaceable, and each animal SCENE
to respect the rights of the others.
could see little bands sQuatted togethe
, on the ground, and I concluded tina
each band represented a family Tn
i apes at the cave mouth were EVIDENT
[ nursing mothers, unable to leave the
: homes, and every now and then | nc
ticed some big father ape elambering u
the rock face with bundle Of vines
something that looked like vines tucke
away in the crook of one arm tn
: father ape would give the food to IN
H. .