Al-Mas’Udi Tells About Them
A Variety Of Anecdotes.
According to him their principal use in Hind
and Chin was to protect kings from poison, by eating suspected dishes.
The Badawin have many tales concerning them.
It is universally believed
that they catch and kill kites, by exposing the rosy portion of their
persons and concealing the rest; the bird pounces upon what appears to
be raw meat, and presently finds himself viciously plucked alive.
Throughout Arabia an old story is told of them. A merchant was once
plundered during his absence by a troop of these apes; they tore open
his bales, and, charmed with the scarlet hue of the Tarbushes, began
applying those articles of dress to uses quite opposite to their normal
purpose. The merchant was in despair, when his slave offered for a
consideration to recover the goods. Placing himself in the front, like
a fugleman to the ape-company, he went through a variety of manœuvres
with a Tarbush, and concluded with throwing it far away. The recruits
carefully imitated him, and the drill concluded with his firing a shot;
the plunderers decamped and the caps were recovered.
Failing to see any apes, we retired to the tent ere the sun waxed hot,
in anticipation of a terrible day. Nor were we far wrong. In addition
to the heat, we had swarms of flies, and the blood-stained earth began
to reek with noisome vapours. Nought moved in the air except kites and
vultures, speckling the deep blue sky:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 283 of 630
Words from 76348 to 76603
of 175520
