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neously, called the Empire of Prester John, by the learned Job Ludolphus, author of the Ethiopic Lexicon Made English by I. P. Gent," (folio, 1682,) there is a grand engraving of apes with this superscription :

"1. Scrambling about the mountains.

"2. Removeing great huge stones to come at the wormes.

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"3. Sitting upon ant-hills and devouring the little creatures. '4. Throwing sand or dust in the eyes of wild beast that come to sett upon them.'

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The whole being illustrative of the following edifying piece of information:

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'Of apes there are infinite flocks up and down in the mountains themselves, a thousand and more together: there they leave no stone unturned. If they meet with one that two or three cannot lift, they call for more, and all for the sake of the wormes that lye under; a sort of dyet which they relish exceedingly. They are very greedy after emmets. So that having found an emmet-hill, they presently surround it, and laying their fore-paws with the hollow downward upon the ant-heap, as fast as the emmets creep into their trecherous palmes they lick 'em off with great comfort to their stomachs: and there they will lye till there is not an emmet left. They are also pernicious to fruit and apples, and will destroy whole fields and gardens, unless they be carefully looked after. For they are very cunning, and will never venture in till the return of their spies, which they send always before; who giving information that all things are safe, in they rush with their whole body, and make a quick dispatch. Therefore they go very quiet and silent to their prey; and if their young ones chance to make a noise they chastise them with their fists, but if they find the coast clear, then every one hath a different noise to express his joy. Nor could there be any way to hinder them from further multiplying, but that they fall sometimes into the ruder hands of the wild beasts, which they have no way to avoid, but by a timely flight or creeping into the clefts of the rocks. If they find no safety in flight, they make a virtue of necessity, stand their ground, and filling their paws full of dust or sand, fling it full in the eyes of their assailant, and then to their heels again."

A collection of stories, printed by John Rastell considerably more than a century before the date of the work last quoted, and not long ago discovered by the lamented Rev. I. I. Conybeare, next attracts our notice. It is no other than "The Hundred Merry Tales," the opprobrium of Benedick, or as it is imprinted “A. C. Mery Talys." This curious and important addition to the stock of Shaksperiana had, as it is stated in the advertisement

of the private reprint (Chiswick, 1815,) been converted into the pasteboard which formed the covers of an old book. As far as the pleasantry is concerned generally, we do not wonder at Benedick's wincing under Beatrice's imputation that he got his wit out of it. But though there is much matter of fact in the book, there are also many queer tales, some of which have passed for new,"Old Simon," for instance, One of them, the forty-sixth tale, is instructive, inasmuch as it shows what chief-justices were in those days.

The story is headed "Of the Welcheman that delyuered the letter to the ape."

The first lines are wanting, but there is enough to make it appear that a master sends his Welsh retainer with a letter to the Chief Justice in order to obtain favour for a criminal who had been in the writer's service, with directions to the said Welshman to return with an answer. The tale then proceeds thus:

"This Welcheman came to the Chefe Justyce place, and at the gate saw an ape syttynge there in a cote made for hym, as they use to apparell apes for disporte. This Welcheman dyd of his cappe and made curtsye to the ape, and sayd—' My mayster recommendeth him to my lorde youre father, and sendeth him here a letter.' This ape toke this letter and opened it, and lokyd thereon, and after lokyd vpon the man, makynge many mockes and moyes as the propertyes of apes is to do. This Welcheman, because he understood him nat, came agayne to his mayster accordynge to his commandes, and told hym he delyuered the letter unto my lorde chefe iustice sonne, who was at the gate in a furred cote. Anone his mayster asked him what answere he broughte? The man sayd he gaue hym an answere, but it was other Frenche or Laten, for he understode him nat. But, syr,' quod he, 'ye nede nat to fere, for I saw in his countenance so moche that I warrante you he wyll do your errande to my lorde his father.' This gentylman in truste thereof made not anye further suite. For lacke whereof his seruaunt that had done the felonye within a monthe after was rayned at the kynge's benche, and caste, and afterwarde hanged."

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And what does the reader think the moral is? Some reflection, perhaps, upon the impunity of those attached to the great, with a hint at God's judgment against unjust judges? No such thing: By this ye may see that every wyse man ought to take hede that he sende nat a folyssche seruante vpon a hasty message that is a matter of nede." Not a bad specimen of the morality of the good old times.

Those who would amuse themselves with more monkeyana of

ancient date, will find some choice passages in Erasmus, Porta, and others; and may learn how a monkey may occasionally supersede the use of a comb-what a horror monkeys have of tortoises and of snails-how violent is the antipathy between the cock and the ape, and how both of these were added to the serpent and introduced into the deadly sack wherein the matricide was inclosed to suffer the frightful punishment awarded to his unnatural act. But we beg to offer the following trifle, showing how a monkey can behave at a dinner-table.

In a country town, no matter where, there lived the worthiest and most philosophical of old bachelors, with a warm heart and a sound head, from whose well-powdered exterior dangled that most respectable ornament a queue. Long did this august appendage, now so rarely seen, linger among the benches of the inns of court. Two worthies we have yet in our eye,-Ultimi Caudatorum! with what veneration do we look up to ye! with what fear and trembling did we regard the progress of the influenza !—the destroying angel has passed by, and the tails still depend from your "frosty pows"-blessings on'em!

Pardon the digression; and return we to our bachelor, who entertained a monkey of such good breeding and so much discretion, that Jacko was permitted to make one at the dinner-table, where he was seated in a high child's chair next to his master, and took off his glass of perry and water in the same time and measure with his patron, and in as good a style as Dominie Sampson himself could have performed the feat. Now, his master's housekeeper made the best preserved apricots in the county, and when the said apricots were enshrined in a tart, the golden fruit set off by the superincumbent trellis, a more tempting piece of patisserie could hardly be laid before man or monkey. One of these tarts enriched the board at a small dinner-party, and was placed nearly opposite to Jacko, who occupied his usual station. The host helped one and another to some of this exquisite tart, but he forgot poor Jacko, who had been devouring it with his eyes, and was too well-bred to make any indecorous snatch at the attraction, as most monkeys would have done. At last Jacko could stand it no longer, so looking to the right and left, and finally fixing his eyes on the guests opposite, he quietly lifted up his hand behind his master's back, and gave his tail such a tug as made the powder fly, withdrew his hand in an instant, and sat with a vacant expression of the greatest innocence. People don't like to have their tails pulled. His master gave him a look, and Jacko gave him another, but even the eloquent expression of Hogarth's monkey on the offending bear's back fell short of it. It said as plainly as look could speak-" Don't be angry—

don't thrash me—they did not see it-I beg your pardon, but I must have a bit of that apricot tart:"-he was forgiven and helped.

Authors generally seem to think that the monkey race are not capable of retaining lasting impressions; but their memory is remarkably tenacious when striking events call it into action.

One that in his zeal for imitation had swallowed the entire contents of a pill-box-the cathartics, fortunately, were not Morisonian-suffered so much, that ever afterwards the production of such a box sent him to his hiding-place in a twinkling.

Another that was permitted to run free had frequently seen the men-servants in the great country kitchen, with its huge fireplace, take down a powder-horn that stood on the chimney-piece, and throw a few grains into the fire, to make Jemima and the rest of the maids jump and scream, which they always did on such occasions very prettily. Pug watched his opportunity, and when all was still, and he had the kitchen entirely to himself, he clambered up, got possession of the well-filled powder-horn, perched himself very gingerly on one of the horizontal wheels placed for the support of saucepans, right over the waning ashes of an almost extinct wood-fire, screwed off the top of the horn, and reversed it over the grate.

The explosion sent him half-way up the chimney. Before he was blown up he was a smug, trim, well-conditioned monkey as you would wish to see on a summer's day: he came down a carbonadoed nigger in miniature, in an avalanche of burning soot. The à plomb with which he pitched upon the hot ashes in the midst of the general flare-up, aroused him to a sense of his condition. He was missing for days. Hunger at last drove him forth, and he sneaked into the house close-singed, begrimed, and looking scared and devilish. He recovered with care, but, like some other great personages, he never got over his sudden elevation and fall, but became a sadder if not a wiser monkey. If ever Pug forgot himself and was troublesome, you had only to take down a powder-horn in his presence, and he was off to his hole like a shot, screaming and clattering his jaws like a pair of castanets.

Le Vaillant, in his African travels, was accompanied by an ape, which lived on very good terms with the cock and hens, showing, in defiance of the legend, no antipathy to the former, and a strong penchant for the latter, for whose cacklings he listened, and whose eggs he stole. But this and other peccadillos were amply atoned for, by the bonhommie and other good qualities of Kees, for that was the name of the traveller's ape, which seems to have almost realized the virtues of Philip Quarl's monkey.

"An animal," says Le Vaillant in his first voyage, just after

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speaking of the benefits that he derived from his gallant chanticleer, that rendered me more essential services; which, by its useful presence, suspended and even dissipated certain bitter and disagreeable reflexions that occurred to my mind, which by its simple and striking instinct, seemed to anticipate my efforts, and which comforted me in my languor-was an ape, of that kind so common at the Cape, under the name of Bawians. As it was extremely familiar, and attached itself to me in a particular manner, I made it my taster. When we found any fruit or roots unknown to my Hottentots, we never touched them until my dear Kees had first tasted them; if it refused them, we judged them to be either disagreeable or dangerous, and threw them away.

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An ape has one peculiarity which distinguishes it from all other animals, and brings it very near to man. It has received from nature an equal share of greediness and curiosity: though destitute of appetite, it tastes without necessity every kind of food that is offered to it; and always lays its paw upon everything that it finds within its reach.

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There was another quality in Kees which I valued still more. He was my best guardian; and whether by night or by day, he instantly awoke on the least sign of danger. By his cries, and other expressions of fear, we were always informed of the approach of an enemy before my dogs could discover it: they were SO accustomed to his voice, that they slept in perfect security, and never went the rounds; on which account I was extremely angry, fearing that I should no longer find that indispensable assistance which I had a right to expect, if any disorder or fatal accident should deprive me of my faithful guardian. However, when he had once given the alarm, they all stopped to watch the signal; and on the least motion of his eyes or shaking of his head, I have seen them all rush forward, and scamper away in the quarter to which they observed his looks directed.

"I often carried him along with me in my hunting excursions, during which he would amuse himself in climbing up trees, in order to search for gum, of which he was remarkably fond. Sometimes he discovered honey in the crevices of rocks, or in hollow trees; but when he found nothing, when fatigue and exercise had whetted his appetite, and when he began to be seriously oppressed by hunger, a scene took place which to me appeared extremely comic. When he could not find gum and honey he searched for roots, and ate them with much relish ; especially one of a particular species, which, unfortunately for me, I found excellent and very refreshing, and which I greatly wished to partake of. But Kees was very cunning: when he found any of this root, if I was not near him to claim my part,

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