138 The Poets Beasts. 



Made them more hideous than their prototypes 

 That bore the genuine image and inscription, 

 Defaced, indeed, but yet indelible." 



This poetical reversion of the more orthodox theory of 

 evolution is curious. 



Rogers gives a passing line to "the marmoset," that 



" Dreams on his bough and plays the mimic still." 



And Gay out of his fancy draws an excellent picture of the 

 " bhunder-logue " on the Ganges — 



" Ah ! sir, you never saw the Ganges — 

 There dwell the nations called Quidnunkies 

 (So Monomotapa calls monkeys) ; 

 On either bank, from bough to bough 

 They meet and chat (as we may now) ; 

 Whispers go round, they grin, they shrug, 

 They bow, they snarl, they scratch, they hug. 

 And just as chance or whim provokes them, 

 They either bite their friends or stroke them." 



But, as usual, this is only the introduction of spiteful 

 analogy — 



'* Thus have I seen some active prig 



To show his parts, bestride a twig ; 



L — d ! how the chattering tribe admire ! 



Not that he's wiser, but he's higher ; 

 . All long to try the vent'rous thing 



(For pow'r is but to have one's swing) ; 



From side to side he springs, he spurns, 

 And bangs his foes and friends by turns." 



The tremendous honours of the tribe in the Egypt of the 

 past, the India of to-day, receive no fuller recognition than 

 in such lines as Oldham's — 



" In Egypt oft has seen the sot bow down 

 And reverence some deified baboon." 



