och! oi can't remember roightly

phwat exactly waz the name

of the gintleman phwat did it,

but oi read it all the same—

how he lived insoide a cage, sor

('twas a moighty strong consarn),

in the middle of the forest,

monkey language for to larn.

if he larned to spake it roightly

oi can't say, sor, yis or no;

but he left the cage behoind him,

that for sartin sure oi know;

for oi saw it there mesilf, sor—

if ye loike oi'll tell yez how.

'tis a moighty cur'ous story

that oi'm tellin' of yez now.

'tis some many years agone, sor,

oi forget phwy oi waz sint

with the great explorin' party,

but they axed me,—an' oi wint.

an' the forests that we passed through,

an' the rivers that we crossed,

phwat with one thing an' another

ivery man but me waz lost.

but oi still kept on explorin',

walkin' by mesilf for moiles,

an' a-swimmin' over rivers,

filled with hungry crocodoiles,

till wan day a big gorilly

oi saw standin' in the road,

and, phwen oi saw the cratur,

"och, bedad!" oi cried, "oi'm blow'd."

for oi took him for a christian.

dressed in plant'in leaves and things,

with a bonnet on his head, sor,

an' around his neck some rings

ov berries from the trees, sor,

an', sez oi, "it seems to me,

by the manner of his dressin',

it's most loikely he's a she."

she waz that, an' by the same, sor,

when oi bowed and raised me hat,

she jist flung her arms around me,

and then down beside me sat.

oi could see she'd fell in love, sor,

an' oi came all over hot,

for a big female gorilly

's worse than any hottentot.

an' oi rasoned with her thus, sor:

"oi can't marry yez, becaze

oi've wan woife in ballyhooly,

an' another wan that waz

me woife up in killarney;

if oi marry yez, ye see,

they'll call it bigamy, perhaps,

or trigonometry."

but she didn't understand, sor,

an' she stayed with me all day,

an' she growled an' showed her teeth, sor,

when oi tried to get away;

then she led me to her home, sor—

it waz made insoide the cage,

(that the gintleman oi told yez ov

had left there, oi'll engage.)

"an' ye mane to shut me up in that,

ye ugly great gorilly?"

thinks oi. "bedad! ye won't, thin.

d'ye take me for a silly?"

so when she opens wide the door,

oi steps asoide politely;

she walks insoide, oi shuts the door,

an' fastens it up toightly.

an' a moighty lucky thing it waz

oi fastened her up so, sor;

what would have happened otherwise

oi really do not know, sor.

but oi left her far behind me,

still a-yellin' in her rage,

an' if the gintleman goes back,

he'll find her—in the cage.