[Illustration]
As rosy-colored Morn advanced to greet the opening eyes of monkeys and
men, and spread her beams over Cocoanut Hill, lifting at last the veil
of mists which hung over Alligator Swamp, a fat baboon was seen wending
his way with a child in his arms to the settlement of the Lali. All night
long he had traversed wood and swamp, picking his way through bush and
fen, eluding the serpent and fleeing from the cry of the catamount, his
only companion the moon, and his only hope the morning.
“I have avenged the rape of Soolee,” he said, as he approached the
assembled Apes who were expecting the several warriors back which had
gone to the country of the Ammi to recover the child that had been
recently captured by them.
Great chatterings and shouts of gratification went up from the Lali as
they saw one of their number thus return victorious. Only the mother of
Soolee appeared distressed.
“Where is my child?” she asked.
“I have brought one of the Ammi instead,” was the response of the warrior.
“A man,” replied she, “is no compensation for a monkey; and the finding
of another is no comfort to a mother for the loss of her own.”
[Illustration: I HAVE BROUGHT ONE OF THE AMMI INSTEAD.]
“You can have her for a slave,” was the reply. “You lost one, and you get
one: it makes no difference whether you have the same or not.”
The mother, however, was not satisfied, although the rest thought her
grievance a small matter. The honor of the Apes was asserted by the
reprisal; and when the public interest is conserved the multitude cares
little for the individual loss.
Orlee was placed in charge of this woman, who, notwithstanding her
dissatisfaction, was delighted, not only at having a child, but at
the fact that it represented the vengeance of her people. This double
relation to the infant made her both love the child and mistreat it, the
first because it was a child, and the latter because it stood in place of
her own.
It was customary for the Apes, and also for the Men, when they had taken
prisoners from each other, to reduce them to slavery, a custom which had
arisen, however, only since their separation; for prior to that, they had
neither property nor interest in each other’s work; and so neither man
nor ape was believed to be worth anything. But, in acquiring property
they put value on men as well as on cocoanuts, and kept each other as a
treasure where before they had killed each other as a nuisance. Some even
went to war for the prisoners, and the more valuable they found men to be
the more they fought them, until they soon came to want enemies more than
friends, and to like them better than allies. They fought for something
instead of against something, and numbered their prisoners rather than
their victories. Both sides became kidnappers, instead of warriors, and
the principle and practice of slavery was established, as a result of
learning the worth of men.
The warrior Oboo, who had brought Orlee to the Lali, was seen all day to
hang around the woman in whose charge the child had been placed. Some
thought it was on account of his interest in the child; but shrewder
apes said it was on account of his interest in the woman. As the
newly-arrived child had obtained a mother he thought it ought also to
have a father. The female ape did not repel the advances of the warrior,
but said that if he would also restore her own child he might be father
to both. The mother was, however, much comforted for the loss of her
child by this gain of a father for it. The two wanted both to attend
to the new child, the result of which was that the child received no
attention, which proved serious, as we shall see. For they paid so much
attention to each other that they often wholly forgot the child.
This warrior, Oboo, had not a good reputation among the Lali. Several
scandals had already disgraced him, and his attention to this new woman
was looked upon with suspicion.
“No good will come of it,” said an observant ape, who remembered his
gallantries to others, and who was aware that he seized every pretext to
ingratiate himself with a susceptible female ape. His bravery, however,
had made him a favorite among the women, although his gallantry had much
to do with it. He was a Simian “Masher,” and twice got his head pounded
by male apes who did not like his attentions to their female friends.
This ape was charged with starting out for the child, not because he
wanted it, but because he wanted the mother, and because he hoped that
his bravery would be rewarded with her love. Thus are the motives of
apes, like those of men, impugned from jealousy, and our greatest
warriors are traduced by their rivals. No pains were spared to suggest
these suspicions to the woman herself, especially by another ape who
had loved her, and had likewise started for her child and come back
unsuccessful. These two male apes finally came together, and when
one charged the other with cowardice, and was charged in turn with
“spooniness,” they came to blows, or rather scratches, and would have
killed each other had not the woman interposed.
“There is not much difference between you in virtue,” she said, “and
whoever brings back my child shall be thought the braver.”
“Will you give up that ape if I bring back your child?” asked the
new-comer.
“Yes, but I will stay with him till then for having brought this one,”
was her reply.
The ape departed at this rebuff, divided in his thoughts between the
purpose of recovering the child and that of punishing his rival for his
insolence and his success.