No maiden aunts in whose exiguous fur

Fleet parasites should properly occur,'

No coconuts were there, no ripe banana

Wherewith to pound your fellow Quadrumana,

No Amazonian glade whose fastness woos

The spider monkey's pensive-eyed papoose,

The while his parents pulverize the rash

Intruder with the well-timed calabash ;

No ruined temple where the himgry Kaa

Swallows the baby Bandar-log's papa —

Nought (though a vague uncertainty anent

The species you propose to represent

Compels this careful pen to introduce

A background broad but just a trifle loose)

12



Nought — ^to conclude the phrase — could you detect

Such as a new-laid monkey might expect ;

Instead a view incomparably triste, a

Momentous dullness occupied the vista.
Yonder across the intervening space

A languid stork exploits his amorous grace,

While close at hand unsavoury pens confine

The prickly but innocuous porcupine.
About thy cage the vulgar human tribe

Pronounce the wheeze and urge the ill-bred gibe,

Turn up their noses if thy ways displease,

Or smile at thy adhesive properties,

Or criticize thy looks, while one small creature

Says, " Lor, Eliza, ain't it just hke teacher ! "



Well mayst thou view with ill-concealed disgust
The casual refuse charitably thrust
Under thy nose — the unromantic rusk.
The orange's unappetising husk ;
Well may it irk when youths with shiny faces
Prod thee with walking-sticks in tender places.
Yet are there compensations to thy lot,
Evils that men endure and monkeys not.
Recurring troubles which the captive ape
Is fortunately able to escape.
