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[Nick Moffitt <nick AT zork.net>]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050603/od_afp/britainfranceanimal_050603121956

        Monkey bone fuels British town's curious simian myth

A bone found on a British beach has sparked renewed interest in one of
the country's most curious myths -- that a monkey washed ashore during
the Napoleonic Wars was executed by suspicious locals for being a
French spy.

Police in Hartlepool, on the northeast coast of England, confirmed
Friday that the one-foot (30 centimetre) long bone found on a beach
last month was not human, but came instead from a monkey or gorilla.

The discovery has intrigued locals, given the town's curious folklore
from the Anglo-French Napoleonic conflict, which lasted from 1793 to
1815.

According to popular legend, a monkey dressed in a French uniform was
washed ashore at Hartlepool and tried by local magistrates on
suspicion of being a French spy.

Because it did not answer questions they presumed the animal was
guilty, and it was hanged from a lamppost.

Although the tale's authenticity is unknown, Hartlepool's football
team has long used a man dressed in a monkey suit -- dubbed "H'Angus"
-- as its mascot.

In a bizarre twist to the story, the man who used to wear the monkey
suit, Stuart Drummond, was elected Harlepool's mayor in 2002 after
running for the post in the guise of H'Angus.

Local publisher Adrian Liddell, a keen historian of the tale, said the
discovery of the bone was of great interest in the town.

"We have noticed a revival of interest in the legend following the
discovery of the bone," he said.

"It's a further addition to the legend and adds fuel to the fire that
the monkey tale could be true."

But historians say the truth could be far more prosaic, given that the
area around Hartlepool was, until about 2,000 years ago, largely
forest.

"When the coastline changed and tides swallowed the area up, it
covered trees, animal remains and human occupation," said Mark Simmons
from the Museum of Hartlepool.

"The bone is most likely something very old, rather than Napoleonic."

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You are in an open field west of a big white house         Nick Moffitt
with a boarded front door.                                nick AT zork.net
There is a small mailbox here.
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