BRITISH CAMEROONS 337 
lovable character I have ever known—none other than Mr. Chol- 
mondley, the chimp. He was presented to me by Mr. Craig, a 
former District Commissioner in British Cameroons, by whom he 
had been brought up as one of the family. His face was like that 
of no other chimp owing to malformed teeth which gave his 
muzzle a bulbous appearance. For all that, he had a kindly, 
benevolent expression and was highly intelligent—or so it seemed. 
Some might say that this was merely the result of being extraor- 
dinarily observant and highly imitative. His curiosity and desire 
to know how everything worked were evident if he was shown a 
locked trunk and was given a bunch of keys. Without any prompt- 
ing he would quickly find the right key, and with much gleeful 
muttering open the lid. One of his great joys was to be given an 
umbrella when it was raining. The harder it rained the more he 
loved sitting out in it; but his unquenchable curiosity lured him 
into pressing the catch every now and then, so that the umbrella 
collapsed and water showered all over him, but this was all part 
of the game, and a split second was enough to restore it to its 
former position. 
Cholmondley was about eight years old when I got him and was 
a very powerful animal. He had evidently been teased and per- 
haps maltreated by natives, for he hated them all, and for that 
reason had to be kept on a strong chain. His animosity was such 
that he would have attacked any number on sight if given the 
chance; but he simply loved Europeans, young or old of either 
sex, and although he was at an age when chimps would ordinarily 
be regarded as unreliable or dangerous, he never once showed the 
slightest malice toward any white person. He loved to wrestle and 
play games, but his favorite trick was to remove the shoes and 
socks of any visitor, undoing the laces most dexterously. The rest 
was a trifle embarrassing, for he would examine one’s bare foot, 
opening the toes and searching for any foreign matter that he 
thought should not be there. This and any loose pieces of skin, 
even if of almost microscopic proportions, were removed in deadly 
earnest, and when one foot was considered clean he would hold 
out his hands to indicate that he wanted the other foot thrust for- 
ward so that he could repeat the shoe-removing operation and 
complete the pedicure. 
