NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



the cobs were in the soft, sweet, and milky stage of 

 development. Three sentinels were on duty, for, 

 owing to the nature of the surroundings, one could 

 not command a sufficiently extensive view to prevent 

 the possibility of enemies stealing up unseen. The 

 moment we turned the corner of the neighbouring 

 forest, loud warning cries rang out from the senti- 

 nels, and off scampered the troops of thieves, each 

 with a cob or two in their hands. Arriving on the 

 scene of the feast, we found hundreds of mealie cobs 

 littered over the ground, and many scores more 

 hanging torn and broken from the stems. Not a 

 single cob had the mealies entirely eaten off it. Like 

 pampered children sampling an assortment of sweets 

 and cakes, these apes merely tore with their teeth 

 some of the sheath, took a bite at the mealies, and, 

 if not sweet enough for their liking, another was torn 

 from the stem and sampled ; and so on until a suffi- 

 ciently sweet and milky one was discovered. Then, 

 with a grunt of satisfaction it would be partly de- 

 voured, and another sought. The ground was 

 strewn with mealie cobs, and the stems in all direc- 

 tions had been broken down to get at the cobs, 

 which are usually high up on the stem of the plant. 

 This particular troop of apes lived in a neighbour- 

 ing kloof, the bottom and sides of which were densely 

 clothed with thick tangled bush, mostly of the kind 

 bristling with long sharp thorns. In this wild 

 retreat the monkeys were safe from their human 

 enemies, and they knew it perfectly well. From the 

 4 



