An Indian and his wife went out from the village to work their
Chakra, carrying their infant with them. The woman went to the
spring to get water, leaving the man in charge of the child,
with many cautions to take good care of it. When she arrived
at the spring, she found it dried up, and went further to look
for another. The husband, alarmed at her long absence, left
the child and went in search. When they returned, the child
was gone; and to their repeated cries, as they wandered through
the woods in search, they could get no response save the wailing
cry of this little bird, heard for the first time, whose notes,
their anxious and excited imaginations syllabled into pa-pa,
ma-ma (the present Quichua name of the bird). The Spaniards
heard this story, and with that religious poetic turn of thought
which seems peculiar to this people, called the bird 'The Lost
Soul.'
In the Monkey House, there was a little dainty monkey named
"Babs." A little flowered dress was hanging near her window.
It was just her size. Many dresses were made for her by her radio
friends. She was on television with Mr. Watson on the program called
"This is your Zoo," over WAAM.
I loved to watch Babs. I always watched the program, and I
could look at her for hours. It was fun every minute.
She had little hops and skips and jumps, and she had pouting,
dainty manners, and she was dressed in her fancy new outfit every
week with a bonnet and everything.
All the time, she ate the bananas that she loved so much, and
she poked her delicate monkey fingers into the sawdust to find food
tidbits. She liked lettuce and greens, and she picked very carefully
every little piece of food. I wanted Mommy to buy me a pet monkey,
and she said she'd try. Babs would get jealous of the attention
Mr. Watson gives some of the other monkeys. "Dr. Tom"
is a favorite of all the children too.
One day Mommy started to talk about a man named Darwin who
said we come from monkeys.
She said, "When I look at these monkeys, I know positively
that Darwin is wrong in calling them the origin of our species.
If we're descended from monkeys, why are there monkeys still, and
why haven't they kept on evolving? We'll believe in Adam and Eve,
Linda. God put lots of different kinds of animals and humans here,
but He made us like Him and He made us perfect first, in
the beginning. Then sin changed us. I don't think there ever was
a 'Missing Link'."
"What's a 'Missing Link'?" I asked.
"That's a skull of a half-man, half-monkey creature the
scientists say they found. I don't believe there ever was one. They
say they found it in Sussex, England, and call it the "Piltdown
Man," and they call it an extinct human species, Linda."
I was glad to agree with Mommy, for I think monkeys are cute
and I wanted one to make a pet out of, but I wouldn't want to think
we ever really were one
I liked the Reptile House too. Mommy didn't, but I liked the
crocodiles and the huge snakes and the terrapin and all the other
crawling things.
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