22 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



feet tranquillity. I often took Kees with me when I went 

 hunting; and when he saw me preparing for sport, he 

 exhibited the most lively demonstrations of joy. On the way, 

 he would climb into the trees to look for gum, of which he 

 was very fond. Sometimes he discovered to me honey, 

 deposited in the clefts of rocks, or hollow trees. But, if he 

 happened to have met with neither honey nor gum, and 

 his appetite had become sharp by his running about, I always 

 witnessed a very ludicrous scene. In those cases, he looked 

 for roots, which he ate with great greediness, especially a 

 particular kind, which, to his cost, I also found to be very 

 well tasted and refreshing, and therefore insisted upon sharing 

 with him. In order to draw these roots out of the ground, 

 he employed a very ingenious method, which afforded me 

 much amusement. He laid hold of the herbage with his 

 teeth, stemmed his fore feet against the ground, and drew 

 back his head, which gradually pulled out the root. But if 

 this expedient, for which he employed his whole strength, 

 did not succeed, he laid hold of the leaves as before, as 

 close to the ground as possible, and then threw himself 

 heels over head, which gave such a concussion to the root, 

 that it never failed to come out. 



The Tame " Serpents excepted, there were no animals of 

 Baboon, whom Kees stood in such great dread as of his 

 own species, perhaps owing to a consciousness of loss of 

 natural capacity. Sometimes he heard the cry of other 

 apes among the mountains, and, terrified as he was, he 

 yet answered them. But, if they approached nearer, and 

 he saw any of them, he fled, with a hideous cry, crept 

 between our legs, and trembled over his whole body. It was 

 very difficult to compose him, and it required some time 

 before he recovered from his fright. 



The Cunning " ^ e a ^ otner animals, Kees was addicted to 



of the stealing. He understood admirably well how 



Baboon. to j ooge fa e strings of a basket, in order to take 



