"
		On a visit to The Bronx Zoo (04 March 2004), walking toward the monkey house, I expected to see chimpanzees or lemurs and squirrel monkeys. Instead, I was entriely surprised to see creatures small enough to hold in one hand, with eerily human-looking -- but also mask-like, perhaps because surrounded by a halo/ruff of fur... -- faces: marmosets and tamarins. I had not been aware such creatures existed. I was struck how "haunting" their faces were, and that they would likely be even moreso if there was not the zoo glass between us. -- In the above picture, the marmoset at right looks like an Iranian Ayatollah. See also: Pictures I took at Bronx Zoo, 24Mar04, Click here.
		I can easily imagine how "superstitions" could arise regarding these tiny faces in the forest. "The Satarei Indians believe marmosets and tamarins are reincarnations of their dead children...." (Singapore Zoological Gardens website)
	"	Marmosets and tamarins are monkeys, but they're nicknamed "gremlins" for their appearance and mischievous behavior. During World War II, British Royal Air Force pilots whose airplanes malfunctioned often blamed mishaps on gremlins -- tiny, mythical creatures that supposedly caused mechanical difficulties regularly, but who were also capable of making something work when it appeared broken. These legendary creatures so captivated pilot Roald Dahl that he chose them as the subject for his first published book, THE GREMLINS, in 1943. More recently, the magical animals appeared in the 1984 movie GREMLINS, produced by Stephen Spielberg." (PBS TV series, Nature: "Tiny Monkeys")
		Hopefully these so human-looking, yet mask-like, barely larger than postage-stamp size faces, are the faces of friendly forest spirits. Perhaps the traditional image of the poet's muse should be replaced by one of these creatures on his shoulder?
		These animals' faces also recalled to my mind the Great Forest Spirit's face, in Princess Mononoke.
		http://www.cloud9.net/~bradmcc/sq/marmoset.html Copyright © 2004 Brad McCormick, Ed.D. bradmcc@cloud9.net (2006-03-13 ISO 8601) 21 April 2006 v05.07
		Friendly forest spirits from Princess Mononoke