KARROO BEASTS, BIRDS AND REPTILES. 243 



time employed to work the points. The man in charge 

 of the latter — having in a railway accident lost one 

 arm and part of the remaining hand — had taught the 

 ape to move the levers. This he did most cleverly with 

 three of his powerful hands, using one of the hinder 

 ones; and the fact of the novel pointsman retaining his 

 situation makes it evident that his duties were satisfac- 

 torily performed. 



On the occasion of a raid with dosjs and guns on the 

 baboons infesting a friend's farm, one of the animals 

 killed was the mother of a very young infant. When 

 the captors came up to the spot they found the poor 

 little creature crying piteously as it clasped the trunk 

 of the tree beneath which lay its dead parent. They 

 took it home, and our friend, a great lover of animals, 

 was successful in rearing it. " Sarah," a gentle, amiable 

 character, soon became a great favourite, and her 

 comical ways were a source of constant amusement to 

 her human friends. At the word of command she 

 would stand erect, with her arms behind her, and her 

 mouth wide open to catch the pieces of potato, etc., 

 which were thrown into it; and when told to open 

 " wider ! wider I " she would distend her jaws almost 

 to the point of breaking. 



Of course she was occasionally — what member of the 

 ape tribe is not ? — the victim of practical jokes. One 

 day her favourite dish, pumpkin, was presented to her, 

 and, all-unconscious of the treachery which lurked 

 within, she applied herself with gusto to her dinner, 

 which, unlike most of her tribe, she always preferred to 



