MISCELLANEOUS NOTES, 211 



of time she made him into a very useful little table servant and for months 

 he would be as good as gold ; then something would happen to upset him, and 

 he would break out again into some rascality. With all his vices he had some- 

 thing attractive about him, and was possessed of one or two good qualities 

 which made us forget his bad ones. For instance, he was generous to a fault 

 and devoted to animals, and tender-hearted to a degree where they were 

 concerned. We banked his pay for him, only allowing him Re. 1 per month 

 pocket money, but occasionally he would get a windfall unknown to us in the 

 shape of a tip from some passing sportsman, and on such occasions he would 

 say nothing about it until he had spent the money ; but we always found that 

 he had shared it with somebody else. On one occasion I remember his 

 getting Rs, 3 from some guest of ours, he at once disposed of it as follows : — - 

 Re, 1 drink in the bazar for himself and friends, 



„ 1 for a pet goat, 



„ 1 to a mendicant who had befriended him in Harrar. 

 When I left the country on leave to England it was difficult to know 

 what to do with him. He was such a thief that one could not recommend him 

 to a stranger and yet we were loth to leave him to go back to his evil ways. 

 He refused to go to school in Aden and was oiiered the choice, either of 

 remaining in the charge of the Missionary Fathers at Berbera and being 

 educated at their school until I returned from leave, or else of being sent 

 back to Abyssinia. At first he said he would stay with the Fathers but 

 some one put it into his head that they would force him to become a 

 Christian, so he changed his mind and elected for Harrar. His deferred pay 

 amounting to some Rs, 50, was handed over to a responsible man travelling from 

 Zaila to Harrar who was to take Yusuf with him and dole out his money as 

 he required it. He reached Harrar safely but I heard afterwards that he 

 had soon wasted his substance and relapsed into evil ways. Soon afterwards 

 he returned (probably having been expelled from Harrar) to Berbera where 

 he was living by his wits when last heard of. Poor boy, I often think of 

 him with regret ; had he been rescued earlier he might have become a respect- 

 able member of society, but we got hold of him too late. If fate should 

 take me back to those shores on work or pleasure bent, Yusuf and I may 

 meet again and if he is not a hopeless criminal by then, I hope I may have 

 another chance of reforming him ; meanwhile his little personality remains 

 in my memory as the most extraordinary mixture of good and evil that I 

 have ever come across. 



One more reference to the Wart Hog and I have done. In 1895 I was 

 collecting some animals for the Calcutta Zoo, and among them had a pair 

 of baby Wart Hog. They were the nicest little creatures imaginable — not 

 striped like the Indian porker but coal black with little shiny hairless skins. 

 Under ordinary circumstances I should have tried to make pets of them as 

 they were very tameable and always beautifully clean and sweet, but at the 



