258 77/1? Ichneumon or Miingoos. [Sess. 



animal, I was in a fix wliat to do witli him, as my wife could 

 not bear his look, and imagined all manner of horrible possi- 

 bilities in connection with him. I thought, however, little 

 harm could be done by him in one night, but I determined 

 for safety to tie him up outside the bedroom door, so that we 

 might hear if anything went wrong. I accordingly put a piece 

 of string round his neck, and so secured him. In the morning, 

 when I got outside the bedroom to go down-stairs, I found the 

 mungoos quite safe ; but I had not been many minutes away 

 when I heard loud cries of distress, and on hastening up-stairs, 

 I found that the animal had slipped the string and invaded the 

 bedroom, and, what made matters worse, I could not find him 

 for some time, as he had gone into the wash -basket and 

 covered himself over with clothes. This exploit of his meant 

 banishment from the house, and as I had peremptory orders to 

 take him away then and there, and not knowing what else to 

 do, I took him to the office, where he soon made himself at 

 home. After examining every nook and corner, he found a 

 hole under the floor where he used to sleep, coming out 

 occasionally to warm himself at the stove. I had a small 

 box made for him, which I filled with fine hay, and put it in 

 a dark corner. The entrance was by a small hole in the side, 

 just large enough to allow the mungoos to squeeze himself 

 through. He found it out almost immediately, pulled every 

 straw out of it through the hole with his fore-feet, which he 

 could use like hands, and then took possession, never after- 

 wards sleeping anywhere else. He used to hunt for mice 

 outside and then inside a large coal-box. His movements 

 were as quick as lightning, and when he caught a mouse, 

 which he often did, it was just one crunch and over it went — 

 bolted in a second. The men used to bring mice alive in 

 small wooden traps, and on whistling or calling him, he 

 would come out of his box, and they would let them loose 

 in front of him, when he never failed to make short work of 

 them. Though he was ordinarily tame as a cat, and went over 

 all the place in very much the same manner as these animals 

 do in a house, he was occasionally subject to savage fits. One 

 of the men brought a large rat in a cage and let it out in a 

 room in front of the mungoos, but he did not seem to take 

 much notice of it at first. As soon, however, as he missed it. 



