THE LURE OF KARTABO 29 



their death. But Kib came one day, brought by 

 a tmy copper-bronze Indian. He looked at me, 

 touched me tentatively with a mobile little paw, 

 and my firm resolution melted away. A young 

 coati-mundi cannot sit man-fashion like a bear- 

 cub, nor is he as fuzzy as a kitten or as helpless 

 as a puppy, but he has ways of winning to the hu- 

 man heart, past all obstacles. 



The small Indian thought that three shillings 

 would be a fair exchange; but I knew the par 

 value of such stock, and Kib changed hands for 

 three bits. A week later a thousand shillings 

 would have seemed cheap to his new master. A 

 coati-mundi is a tropical, arboreal raccoon of 

 sorts, with a long, ever-wriggling snout, sharp 

 teeth, eyes that twinkle with humor, and clawed 

 paws which are more skilful than many a fingered 

 hand. By the scientists of the world he is ad- 

 dressed as Nasua nasua nasua — which lays itself 

 open to the twin ambiguity of stuttering Latin, 

 or the echoes of a Princetonian football yell. 

 The natural histories call him coati-mundi, while 

 the Indian has by far the best of it, with the ring- 

 ing, climactic syllables, Kibihee! And so, in the 

 case of a being who has received much more than 

 his share of vitality, it was altogether fitting to 



