THE MONKEYS AND THE PYRRHIC DANCE

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