NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



encounters occurred, which were terminated, in most 

 instances, by the thrust of an assegai. Then the 

 natives closed in on the monkeys cowering in the 

 trees, and destroyed them. Out of a troop of about 

 a hundred individuals, not more than a dozen 

 escaped. 



The chief of the native tribe, to celebrate the 

 occasion, caused three oxen to be killed, and a feast 

 was held, with the usual imbibing of great quantities 

 of " Kafir beer," and subsequent quarrelling. For 

 a couple of years afterwards the wearing apparel of 

 those Kafirs consisted, chiefly, of the prepared skins 

 of the slain monkeys, which were worn as aprons, 

 known as Umutsha. 



Vervet Monkeys are very numerous in the thick 

 bush along the coast of Natal. From these retreats 

 they issue forth and levy a heavy toll on the fruit 

 gardens which are so abundant in the coastal dis- 

 tricts. 



In the forest belts along the coast on the eastern 

 side of the Cape Province, the Vervets are also num- 

 erous. They may be seen almost daily within a few 

 miles of Port Elizabeth. In riding round a corner 

 on Schoenmaakers' Kop road, I dashed amongst a 

 troop, which were at the time in the act of crossing 

 the road, I noticed that several of them carried babies, 

 which were held tight to the breast with one hand. 



A troop of about half a hundred of these monkeys 

 made frequent raids on a field of corn at Mount 

 Pleasant, which is just beyond a township known as 



H 



