Very strange, these Europeans and they think we're an odd bunch. Well, we are but that's not the point.
A bone found on a British beach has sparked renewed interest in one of the country's most curious myths - that a monkey washed ashore during the Napoleonic Wars was executed by suspicious locals for being a French spy.
Police in Hartlepool, on the north-east coast of England, confirmed that the 15 cm bone found on a beach last month was not human but came instead from a monkey or gorilla.
The discovery has intrigued locals, given the town's curious folklore from the Anglo-French Napoleonic conflict, which lasted from 1793 to 1815.
According to popular legend, a monkey dressed in a French uniform was washed ashore at Hartlepool and tried by local magistrates on suspicion of being a French spy.
Because it did not answer questions they presumed the animal was guilty, and it was hanged from a lamppost.
Although the tale's authenticity is unknown, Hartlepool's football team has long used a man dressed in a monkey suit - dubbed "H'Angus" - as its mascot.
For the rest, see The Sydney Morning Herald.
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