MONKEY BUSINESS

Long, long ago a young man Kwan took a young maiden Kim, to be his wife. Together they built a thatched roof hut on a small grassy knoll in the middle of the jungle. Kwan and Kim had a little boy named Ken.

Kwan was a great monkey hunter and the family enjoyed smoked monkey. As a matter of fact, monkey was the mainstay of their regular diet. Monkey hunting in those days required great skill and it also took up a lot of Kwan’s time. Kwan would hunt the monkeys and Kim would skin and hang the monkeys on a limb until Kwan could find time to smoke them. They would keep much longer after they were smoked!

Not far away in another part of the jungle lived another family. The man Lige was real lazy and had never been able to catch any monkeys. He had a wife and three sons and they lived mostly on fruits, nuts, roots and herbs. Whenever Kwan smoked his monkeys the odor would drift their way and their mouths would drool as a result of the delicious aroma.

Lige and his sons were to unskilled and too lazy to hunt monkeys so they decided to take Kim and Ken as prisoners and then force Kwan to hunt monkeys for them. This way they would always have all the monkey that wanted. One day while Kwan was away from his hut they carried out their plan.

The more monkeys Kwan hunted the more Lige and his boys wanted. One day Kwan finally realized he needed help so he went to the home of his three brothers. They banded together and after a big fight they rescued Kim and Ken. To protect themselves they decided to live much closer to one another and this was the first village. Kwan taught his brothers to hunt monkeys and they all prospered. They were called Dobees!

Lige and his sons banded together with his brothers and also formed a village. They would raid the Dobee village and steal their monkeys. Lige and his tribe were called Lazees!

People all over the vast jungle liked the idea of living in villages and over a period of time either joined the Dobees or the Lazees. Many villages were formed this way. Then one day all the Lazee villages banded together and raided a Dobee village, killing all the people and stole all their smoked monkey.

Again, to protect themselves, the Dobee villages all joined together in one location. This was the first city. The Lazees then joined forces so they would have the strength to overpower the Dobees and take their monkeys.

The cities then joined into alliances called nations. Then came the first war!

We are still trying to steal monkeys!

Monkey, monkey on a string
Dobees hunt while Lazees sing.
Monkey, monkey on a hook,
Skinned and ready for the cook.
Monkey, monkey on a spit,
Which one will the Lazees get?
Monkey, monkey go away,
So peace may come to us, someday!