164 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



be daunted, we began by tying our captive to the leg 

 of the table, where he had to accustom himself to 

 seeing us constantly passing and repassing ; and though 

 at first he tried to fly at us every time we came near, 

 he soon saw that we had no evil designs against him, 

 and was reassured by our careful avoidance of abrupt 

 movements and sudden noises most important of all 

 rules to be observed in taming wild creatures. In a 

 few hours he was sufficiently at home to drink milk 

 though cautiously and watchfully from a teaspoon 

 held out to him; and in four days he was following 

 us about the house like a little dog. 



This meerkat, the largest and handsomest we have 

 ever seen, cannot have been anything less than the 

 chief of his tribe. His powerful, tusk-like teeth, his 

 unusually broad and capacious forehead, his superior 

 intelligence, even for so clever a creature as a meerkat, 

 all proclaimed him born to command. When one day 

 he repaid the care and affection of many weeks by 

 cruelly and ungratefully leaving us, we felt little doubt 

 that, after giving civilization a fair trial, and comparing 

 it with his old life, he had decided in favour of the 

 latter, and started off home. We have often wondered 

 whether he succeeded in finding his way back to his 

 subterranean kingdom. And if so, did he find his 

 subjects still faithful? or was he forgotten, and did 

 another king reign in his stead ? 



One evening, when the men returned from the camps, 

 one of the ostrich-herds displayed, nestling together in 

 the palm of his hand, two baby meerkats, no larger 



