246 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



mischief had been done. On attempting to secure and 



tie up the offender, T received a severe bite through 



the leg ; on which, naturally irate, he seized his gun, 

 and capital punishment would then and there have 

 been inflicted but for the discovery that the wily 

 Adonis had balked retributive justice by carefully 

 pulling every cartridge to pieces. 



Among the numerous vices of this baboon was an 

 incorrigible addiction to stimulants ; and after indulg- 

 ing in his favourite drink gin and ginger-beer he 

 might very profitably have been displayed on the plat- 

 form of a temperance lecturer, as the Spartans exhibited 

 their helots, in illustration of the evils of drunkenness. 

 The manner in which, after a drop too much, he in- 

 variably persisted in walking upright was unpleasantly 

 suggestive of drunken humanity; so too was his urgent 

 need of soda-water to allay the parched condition of 

 his mouth on the following morning. He would draw 

 the cork with his strong teeth, holding the bottle close 

 to his lips, and taking the greatest care to lose none 

 of the refreshing gas. 



He could throw stones with the unerring aim of a 

 schoolboy ; and, being of a revengeful disposition, and 

 possessed of a wonderful memory, he never failed to 

 requite any insult or injury received. Once a Zulu 

 offended him by striking him with a stick. A long 

 time passed, and then one day the man, who had quite 

 forgotten all about it, came within reach of the baboon's 

 tether, and blissfully ignorant of the vengeful feelings 

 lurking in the breast of the quadrumane offered him 



