War Monkeys

Chinese generals employ hundreds of war monkeys. They are not mascots, as you might think. They are "oua-ha" monkeys, so named because of the cry they make when angry. Only people as patient as the Chinese can undertake their training. The animal, kept on a leash, is gradually accustomed to seizing a small flag, always of the same color. Each time it brings it back, it is rewarded with a treat. Later, the number of flags is increased and blows and treats are used alternately to accustom the monkey to invariably choose the flag, for example, and to bring it back at all costs, even from a distance of 3 kilometers.

Other monkeys are trained to seize the yellow, red or green flags that swarm in the Chinese divisions. For this. They are deprived of food and thrown by the fifty into the enemy ranks, where, driven by the hope of eating, they scratch and bite the flag-bearers or try to tear off their flags. Then the commander who has thrown them, hearing their piercing "oua-ha", knows that disorder reigns in the camp of his adversaries and he attacks.

But don't these monkeys have duck beaks?