Asses and Apes. 137 



to, and over the precipice. At other times they seem 

 deliberately affecting humanity, just as Bunyan had a craze 

 to be thought a Jew; at others they convene in solemn 

 assembly on purpose, so it seems, to burlesque us, for the 

 whole Sanhedrim when assembled will gravely fall to, and 

 search the fur of the smallest of the congregation ; very 

 much as Domitian would ceremoniously convene the Senate, 

 and then ask them the best stuffing for a mullet. 



As they exist in Nature — the sunny, merry, monkey-world 

 of tree tops — the four-handed folk meet with hardly a refer- 

 ence. In his *' Reign of Summer," Montgomery brings them 

 into the dread presence of the jaguar — 



•' The monkeys in grotesque amaze 

 Down from their bending perches gaze ; 

 But when he lifts his eye of fire, 

 Quick to the topmost boughs retire." 



And again in the "Pelican Island" we have a glimpse of 

 wild life — 



" A monkey pilfering a parrot's nest, 

 But ere he bore the precious spoil away 

 Surprised behind by beaks and wings and claws 

 That made him scamper gibbering." 



And once more — 



" The small monkeys capering on the boughs 

 And rioting on nectar and ambrosia, 

 The produce of that paradise run wild ; 

 No — these were merry if they were not wise." 



But even Montgomery, with an unusual deviation from his 

 characteristic sympathy with the animal world, breaks off 

 suddenly into abuse of the monkey cousins, the baboons — 



" Man's untutored hordes were sour and sullen 



Like those abhorred baboons, whose gluttonous taste 

 They followed safely in their choice of food, 

 And whose brute semblance of humanity 



