The Dancing Monkeys ~ Aesop Fable #352

It is said that the king of Egypt once taught some monkeys how dance the Pyrrhic dance. Since monkeys are creatures that readily imitate human behavior, they quickly learned their lessons and did the dance, dressed in purple robes and little masks. For a while everyone was impressed by the sight, until a more discerning member of the audience threw some nuts he had in his pocket into the midst of the dancers. When the moneys saw the nuts they forgot all about their performance. Instead of dancing, they started acting like monkeys again. They crushed their masks and ripped their robes, fighting each other for the nutmeats. The whole pattern of the dance was thrown into confusion, much to the audience’s amusement.