CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS AND OTHERS 



by some strange animal, first a zebra barking 

 round the bungalow, and then on other nights 

 hyaenas, or jackals. I jumped out of bed quickly 

 once to see a barking jackal running across our gar- 

 den in the bright moonlight. My husband made 

 kennels for our " visitors " out of packing cases 

 so that they should be safe at night. Several 

 of the cats insisted all the same on coming in 

 by the window and sleeping on our bed. The 

 animals soon settled in their new home. Paka's 

 kittens were huge by now. When I had some 

 people to tea one afternoon, I found one kitten 

 sitting in the slop-basin on the tea-tray, trying to 

 get its head in the milk jug. Just about that time 

 there was a plague of fleas and our animals were 

 covered with them.^ I do not like insects at all, 

 and one night I thought I felt one in bed. My hus- 

 band woke up to find me sitting in the middle of 

 the bed waving a large lamp about dangerously, but 

 triumphantly holding a flea tight in my other hand. 

 He told me I should set the bungalow on fire, and 

 if I could not get used to such things (as fleas ! ) I 

 had better go home. I replied that I had never 

 been so near wanting to go before ! However *' it " 

 was killed. I think the kitten the boys found under 

 our bungalow, now grown up and named " Susie 

 Weenie," left it behind during the night. 



^ The fleas leave the grass and enter houses just before the 

 rains. 



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