lUIt; AMI OSTIUCH FAliAHNd. 63 



as mena^'erie kt uper, met uie witli a lace as white as a sheet, 

 saying he had seen soiiiethiag " awfu' " in the stoke hole. He 

 had gone to stoke the fire in the morning twilight, and when he 

 was stooping to open tlie furnace door he heard an unusual noise 

 overhead. On h)oking up his gaze met what he described to me 

 as the " Deevil glowerin' doon o' the top o' him." He was so 

 terrified that he did not 7'emain to verify the fact of its really 

 being >' Hi? Satanic Majesty." iiut rusht'd out of the shed to (iaii 

 for uiy assistance to exorcise the '' fiend of dai-kness." Upon my 

 explaining matters he ■>;'?/>/ nothing, but 1 could see from his face 

 that he thoitiiht some of the gibing- remarks I had heard at the 

 Dumfries railway station. 



Some monkeys have a bad habit, arising from idleness, of 

 iiibliling their tail, which becomes so sore that it causes them much 

 pain. Jacko was addicted to this habit, and the resulting sore 

 became so bad that the tail broke through at one of the joints, 

 about six inches from the " far end." and kept dangling about in 

 a most uncomfortable-lookiug manner. This loose piece became 

 "dead" and required cuttiug away, but I dirl not like to perform 

 the operation myself, simple though it was. It happened, however, 

 one day that the local doctor had l)een assisting to amputate a 

 poor man's leg in the ueiglibourhood. He called on me on his 

 way home, and I asked him, " as his hand was in," would he cut 

 off the monkey's " tail piece." He readily consented. Jacko was 

 placed in a sack, with his tail outside, and I held him under my 

 arm. When the piece was amputated the stump was seared with 

 a red-hot iron. The doctor stayed to dinner, and after the meal 

 was over I went tc see how the " patient " was, and brought him 

 into the dining-room. As was his wont, he sat on the fender bar. 

 I suggested he should have a glass of wine to freshen him up 

 after the opei-ation. This he got. He held the glass in one paw 

 and the tail stump in the other. He would first look at his stump, 

 emitting at the same time a most melancholy whimpering sound, 

 and then take a sip of wine, repeating the action over and over 

 iigain. The scene loses in the telling, but the whole thing was 

 so ludicrous and still so human-like that the worthy doctor nearly 

 fell off his chair with laughing. 



Among m}^ other possessions was a Boa Constrictor, eight 

 feet long, and a young African Python. This Python was about 

 two and a half feet long, and very thin in propoi-tion to its length, 



