And in that they were fewer still , and stronger , and fiercer ; but their feet had changed shape very oddly , for they laid hold of the branches with their great toes , as if they had been thumbs , just as a Hindoo tailor uses his toes to thread his needle . The children were very much surprised , and asked the fairy whether that was her doing . `` Yes , and no , '' she said , smiling . `` It was only those who could use their feet as well as their hands who could get a good living : or , indeed , get married ; so that they got the best of everything , and starved out all the rest ; and those who are left keep up a regular breed of toe-thumb-men , as a breed of short-horns , or are skye - terriers , or fancy pigeons is kept up . '' `` But there is a hairy one among them , '' said Ellie . `` Ah ! '' said the fairy , `` that will be a great man in his time , and chief of all the tribe . '' And , when she turned over the next five hundred years , it was true . For this hairy chief had had hairy children , and they hairier children still ; and every one wished to marry hairy husbands , and have hairy children too ; for the climate was growing so damp that none but the hairy ones could live : all the rest coughed and sneezed , and had sore throats , and went into consumptions , before they could grow up to be men and women . Then the fairy turned over the next five hundred years . And they were fewer still . `` Why , there is one on the ground picking up roots , '' said Ellie , `` and he can not walk upright . '' No more he could ; for in the same way that the shape of their feet had altered , the shape of their backs had altered also . `` Why , '' cried Tom , `` I declare they are all apes . '' `` Something fearfully like it , poor foolish creatures , '' said the fairy . `` They are grown so stupid now , that they can hardly think : for none of them have used their wits for many hundred years . They have almost forgotten , too , how to talk . For each stupid child forgot some of the words it heard from its stupid parents , and had not wits enough to make fresh words for itself . Beside , they are grown so fierce and suspicious and brutal that they keep out of each other 's way , and mope and sulk in the dark forests , never hearing each other 's voice , till they have forgotten almost what speech is like . I am afraid they will all be apes very soon , and all by doing only what they liked . ''
And XXXXX the next five hundred years they were all dead and gone , by bad food and wild beasts and hunters ; all except one tremendous old fellow with jaws like a jack , who stood full seven feet high ; and M. Du Chaillu came up to him , and shot him , as he stood roaring and thumping his breast .
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