Put Me In The Zoo Lyrics

There was a white man from South Carolina Dabbled in anthropology He took ship to the African continent In the year of 1903 Will you lead me through the jungle He asked the man who met him there To the pygmy man and woman do you dare Ota Benga measured four foot ten From his head down to his toe He could split the eye of the elephant With his poison arrow and bow And feed the village three times over On Father Elephant's jungle steak Wash it down with good palm wine down by the cane break He heard Phillips Verner and his guide Wriggle in the bush one day He'd never seen a man with skin like milk He could not turn his gaze away Phillips spoke to him in his own tongue I've been searching for a man like you Come sail away with me and I'll put you in the zoo Ota looked into his pale blue eyes As the man did cast his spell How else to explain when they started next day For the land where the white men dwell Yes I will travel with you, Verner But there is one thing you must do Return me safely home so I can put you in the zoo Forty thousand people in New York Traveled to the Bronx one day And stood in line in front of the monkey house To see the pygmy on display Ota Benga put on quite a show Said the Times in a mixed review But we're not sure we approve of a pygmy in the zoo They say that Phillips Verner was half mad But he was a man of his word He took Ota back to his jungle home A land that himself preferred They built a pen, put his rocking chair right in And his books and his magazines too Then Phillips Verner said now you can put me in the zoo The forest people came from miles around To see the cage Phillips occupied We leave him there as he rocks and he reads out loud To the assembled countryside Ota Benga never received his degree in Caucasian anthropology But he did get a laugh or two when he put Phillips Verner in the zoo He did get a laugh or two when he put Phillips Verner in the zoo And we dance like demons Down in the furnace room Spill red wine, green weed we might