28 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



the performance concluding with a repulsively realistic 

 imitation of a consumptive cough, at the last stage. 

 His favourite noise of all was a harsh, rasping croak, 

 which he would keep up for any length of time, and 

 with the regularity of a piece of clockwork ; this noise 

 was supposed to be a gentle intimation that Jacob was 

 hungry, though the old impostor had probably had a 

 substantial feed just before coming to pose as a starving 

 beggar under our windows. The monotonous grating 

 sound was exasperating; and, when driven quite beyond 



endurance, T would have recourse to extreme 



measures, and would fling towards Jacob a large dried 

 puff-adder's skin, one of a collection of trophies hang- 

 ing on the walls of our cottage. The sight of this 

 always threw Jacob into a state of abject terror. He 

 seemed quite to lose his wits, and would dance about 

 wildly, jumping up several feet from the ground in a 

 grotesque manner ; till at last, grunting his loudest, 

 and with the pen-like feathers on his head bristling 

 with excitement, he would clear the little white fence, 

 and go off at railway speed across the common, where 

 he would remain out of sight all the rest of the day; 

 only returning at dusk to squat solemnly for the night 

 in his accustomed corner of the garden. 



His dread of the puff-adder's skin inclined us to 

 doubt the truth of the popular belief in the secretary's 

 usefulness as a destroyer of snakes, on account of 

 which a heavy fine is imposed by the Cape Govern- 

 ment on any one found killing one of these birds. I 

 certainly do not think Jacob would have faced a full- 



