CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 2. QUADRUMANA. 
113 
Nature, in a sunny wood, 
Must liave been in merry mood, 
And vvitli laughter fit to burst, 
Monkey — when she made tliee first. 
" How you leaped and frisked about 
When your life you first found out 1 
How you threw, in roguish mirth, 
Cocoa-nuts on motlier earth 1 
How you sat and made a din. 
Louder than had ever been — 
Till the parrots, all a-riot. 
Chattered, too, to keep you quiet ! 
"How the AYorld's first cliildren ran 
Laughinij from the monkey-man ! — 
Little Abel and his brother. 
Laughing, shouting to tlieir motlier. 
" And could you keep down your mirth 
"When the floods were on the earth? 
When, from all your drowning kin, 
Good old Noah took you In? 
"In tlie very ark, no doubt, 
You went frolicking about ; 
Never keeping in your mind 
Drowned monkeys left behind." 
After all, what could we do without tlie aiionkeys ? How much of our pleasant literature would 
perish if they were to be struck out of existence ! Certainly they are the heroes of many of the 
best fables of Lafontaine, and other moralists of his school. Who has not been instructed and 
amused by Trumbull's epigrammatic story of the monkey who, having lathered himself in imita- 
tion of his master — 
"Drew razor swift as he could pull it, 
_ — And cut from ear to ear his gullet !" 
The following is an example of a graver satire, for which we arc indebted to the monkeys : 
" A traveler in Africa was one day astonished to observe a vast procession of monkeys marching 
over a plain, with countenances indicative of the deepest sorrow. There was the little frisky green 
monkey — but Ids countenance was grave and woe-begone ; there was the red monkey, and the 
baboon, and the chimpanzee, and all seemed full of grief, as if some great calamity had befallen 
them. Instead of the leaps, and frolics, and grimaces usually seen among this four-handed family, 
they marched forward with long and regular steps, to a grave and solemn tune, sung by a choir of 
appointed howlers. 
" After marching a considerable distance, the vast procession, consisting of many thousands, 
approached a low mound of earth. Here the head of the train halted, and the rest came up and 
arranged themselves around the mound. Then the whole troop set up a most piteous wail ; then 
some of them began to dig into the mound of earth, and pretty soon they disclosed the half- 
decayed skeleton of a monkey. This was raised upon an altar, and then all the monkeys bowed 
down to the bones, and paid them reverence. Then one of the most noted of the monkeys, a 
famous lawyer among them, stood up and made an eloquent address. The monkeys, apes, and 
baboons sobbed, and sighed, and howled, as the orator proceeded. At length he finished with a 
pathetic and sublime flourish, and the congregation shed tears, and wiped their eyes, and then 
they laid the bones in the ground again, and then they heaped up the earth over it to a vast 
height ; and they reared a monument upon it, with an inscription setting forth the virtues and 
services of the dead monkey, and then they all went away. 
" After the multitude had dispersed, the traveler went to the orator, and asked him what all 
this meant : whereupon he said, that it was the custom with the monkeys, when any one rose up 
among them of supreme sagacity, or superior excellence, to envy and hate him — to persecute him 
and to put him to death ; but after many years they always dug up the decayed bones and wor- 
shiped them, to testify their gratitude and repair their injustice, by honoring the memory of the 
monkey they had reviled while living. 
" This sounded so ridiculous to the traveler that he laughed outright ; but he was soon rebuked 
by the monkey, who spoke gravely as follows : ' Your mii'th, sir traveler, is ill timed, and shows a 
want of due reflection. We rnonke3'S are great imitators, and in this matter we do but follow the 
fashion of our betters. Some monkeys have traveled as well as you, sir, and they tell us mankind 
usually revile those who are remarkable for goodness or greatness while they are living, and often 
bring them to a premature grave, either by persecution or neglect ; but afterward, when their 
bones are decayed, they make up for their folly and injustice by paying great honor to their 
memory, digging up their remains, singing hymns, delivering orations, and erecting monuments 
over their ashes !' " 
Vol. L— 15 
