2011 Book #25: THE HIEROGLYPHICS by Michael Stewart

Hephaistus in his old age, after he had been driven from our cities in disgrace, went to the jungles of the East & there became a Prophet. One morning, when Hephaistus was making his body pure, a baboon appeared before him. Being perhaps mad, the old man began to reveal the secrets to the mute baboon. At the end of the first year the baboon repeated back one word to the old teacher. & so Hephaistus taught the baboon for four more years until he had revealed to his student the greatest mystery. The baboon then went among his kind & taught them how to make these words & so it happened that the great mystery was not lost.

When Hephaistus died, the first baboon waited the five days of mourning & then descended into the cities of man & was captured. The baboon was taunted & kept in a cage & people paid to look at him, but the baboon did not utter a sound. Until one day a Priest walked by & saw how the beast was being treated. Moved to sympathy, the Priest purchased the baboon. Later that night the mystery was revealed for the first time in a generation of men. & so the temples were built.

—from The Hieroglyphics by Michael Stewart