Sam Simian the chimpanzee first encountered man when skinny Negro’s shot and killed his angry mother. The Negro’s then placed Sam Simian into a crate as he screamed and soon Sam Simian was loaded onto an ocean going vessel bound for the United States. The trip was long, the conditions were unsanitary and the food was poor. Sam Simian was a sick little monkey by the time he was delivered to the University of New Mexico.
At the University, Sam Simian was nursed back to health by a primatologist who was female and who immediately fell in love with the baby Chimp. The species is but one chromosome shy of humanity and a baby chimpanzee behaves identically to that of a human child. Sam Simian bonded with his human in place of his murdered parent and that was how Sam Simian’s life began.
By the age of two Sam Simian was extremely well coordinated and showed signs of being unusually intelligent. He was entered into the Primate Sign Language Project and quickly learned how to communicate with his Keeper. Sam Simians favorite words were, eat and out, in that order.
The chimp also showed signs of creativity, for he was often found making elaborate arrangements in his pen out of the straw and various toys left to him. That was when his keeper decided to see what would happen if she gave the chimpanzee some paints. Sam Simian got the point of it in no time and soon was making pictures to the amazement and delight of those around him.
By and large the paintings resembled abstract non-representational works popular in the modern art world. As news spread of the talented chimps work, many art dealers and minimalist painters came out to defend their pretentious work previously accepted as aesthetic and valid. Now the masses accused them of fraud for it was then known that a monkey could do that type of art equally well for peanuts.
Sam Simian did his work for oranges.
Sam Simians vocabulary grew in its complexity as time passed. Where once he had signed “eat and out”, he now signed “ It should be clear that keeping me locked in this cage is ethically wrong and I will take my meal now if you please.”
Likewise Sam Simians artwork began to evolve. His brightly colored collages had become dull and devoid of life. Often he would merely paint the entire canvas black, then go back to bed.
His keeper, who loved him deeply, was very worried. It was clear that Sam Simian had long out grown the stimuli available to him at the University. He needed a change. It was these concerns that caused her to stumble upon a report of a group of monks living in the jungles who were attempting to civilize the primates and teach them sign language. The monks hoped to tell the apes about God. It was all very controversial because all religions on Earth believed creatures other than man to be without a soul. The monks did not share this view, which was why they were stuck out in the jungle, forgotten by their church and the rest of the world. Sam Simians keeper decided that this would provide an ideal environment for her Ape friend. Sam Simian could aid the monks in teaching others of his kind sign language and she was interested in what the experiment might prove.
Sam Simian agreed that the idea was fascinating and was extremely interested in all this God business. So his keeper began to sign the bible to him. As she prepared them for their trip Sam Simian continued to learn about God and the teaching of Christ so that by the time they left he was quite the theological expert. Sam Simians only question was how what he had learned applied to him.
The monks greeted Sam Simian and his keeper with enthusiasm. After initial arrangements it was decided that Sam Simian would be released into the wild immediately. The next day Sam Simian bid them farewell and entered the wilds of the jungle. It did not take long for Sam Simian to find the free chimpanzees but it took several weeks for them to accept him as part of the tribe. Sam Simian took a beating from the alpha male as well as the beta. But Sam Simian survived and slowly began to teach sign language to the others. Sam Simian could not believe how cruel and deceitful the alpha male could be and how easily he intimidated the others, who could easily strip him of power simply by non-participation in the alphas games.
The monks and Sam Simian’s keeper were disappointed when Sam Simian didn’t come back. They waited for Sam Simian and sometimes spotted him but after a while it became evident he would not return.
Sam Simian learned from the free chimpanzees that they had a history as complex, and dating as far back, as the humans. He listened as the old ones told of the story of creation and of the chosen apes, the great floods and the deliverance from the domination of the gorillas.
Sam Simian could see the direct relationship between the history of the humans, told in the bible, and that of the ape’s history signed by the elders. As Sam Simian got older, and was asked by the old ones his opinions, he began to tell them stories he remembered from the bible. Specifically Sam Simian retold the sermons of Jesus.
The Alpha did not like Sam Simian’s stories and beat Sam Simians brains out with the jawbone of a boar.
After that the chimpanzees were never the same. The signs of Sam Simian are still repeated to this day, in the jungles and sometimes the zoo.
Get your own Free Home Page
