Anthropoid.

Midnight in the jungle—and a gathering of the monkeys at a pool beneath the trees.

Chatter! chatter! chatter!—crackle of the branch and rustle of the leaves as monk upon monk comes swinging from the forest heights to join the simian throng.

To-night the talk is of the strange new beast that has appeared from over the mountains—that looks at you with a great voice and at whose roar the apes fall bleeding. What is he? Where does he come from, and why?

An ancient ape stood up. He was of an age far beyond that of any of the other monkeys present, and his hair was thin and pale, while scars of many a battle could be seen upon his body.

Quickly the chattering ceased, and the ancient one began to speak—not in words that men would understand, but in the weird jungle language that the horde of monkeys knew so well.

And these were his words:—

"Fellow monkeys, I must speak to you of the stranger in the forest—for it is meet that you should understand. He is an evil one, and his name is man.

"There was a time, long ages ago, so it is said, that he lived among the trees, even as we do—but slowly he went away, and now he builds huge nests out in the open and lives with the dread god 'Fire!'

"With the passing of time, his hair fell off, and he dresses himself with the hair he plucks from the small trees, and that which he cuts from the backs of sheep and goats.

"He has grown very wise, and cruel, too; for the fire god has given him a stick that kills from afar, and the teeth of man are hungry for the flesh of the beast he slays."

Suddenly from out of the darkness there came a strange sound—the music of man. It throbbed through the gloom, and its swaying melody made new echoes in the trees.

The monkeys fled into the night—except one. He was young, and somehow rather different from the rest. Timidly he turned his footsteps towards the sound—through the trees until he saw a party o the man animals squatting round a fire, listening to the fascinating, beating sound that came out of the wooden box.