George Levick was the scientist with Scott's ill fated quest to reach the south pole.
George was appalled at what he saw as depraved sexual behaviour by male penguins, describing some males as hooligans. To fulfil his obligation to record his findings but to hide his embarrassment, he wrote of the penguins in Greek.
His notes have now been released. From a 2012 perspective, inserting moral judgement into a scientific record of the behaviour of animals is extraordinary and laughable.
So have a laugh.
In far away Antarctica
George Levick wrote in Greek
“Male penguins there are hooligans
No morals, so to speak”.
“They go around that frozen waste,
Those base bi-sexual lads,
And stick it into anything!
Alive or dead, the cads!”
And so Scott’s men decided they
Would stay until next season
To give them time to teach those penguins
Moral sense and reason.
Alas, a hundred years has passed
And none has been converted
In fact it seems, the men who stayed
Became themselves ‘perverted’.
For look around and you will see
Behaviour that they learned
Has now become so commonplace
It is no longer spurned.
Homosexuals walking free-
Being gay’s an institution,
And penguins of Antarctica
Are safe from retribution.