28 LOLA 



Is Lola to learn ? ' to which he made answer : ' Lola 

 is clever, but she is not to learn because of the pro- 

 fessors ' and he actually made a face, apparently 

 he was thinking of his own experiences. I laughed, 

 and said : 



" ' Lola shall have a good time with me ; she shall 

 run about in the woods and the meadows, and play 

 with a lot of other animals, and not have to work too 

 long ; the professors shall be sent away when Lola 

 is tired.' This evidently pleased him, and he became 

 very friendly to me, and on my returning to my point 

 and asking once more whether Lola might go with me, 

 he rapped out his answer on my hand : it was ' Yes ! ' 



" Then I told him about an ox, who, when he didn't 

 want to work, pretended to be dead. Rolf now got 

 very excited, and wanted to go on rapping first on 

 my hand, and then on the leather-covered sofa on 

 which I was sitting. I became rather uneasy and got 

 him to go and rap to Fraulein Moekel, for I could then 

 follow the raps far better. And what he now had to 

 say referred to the deceitful ox it was : "Hat 

 Recht : Lol immer sagen Bauchweh ! " ( Quite 

 right of him ! Lol always says he has a pain in his 

 stomach 1) 



" After this I showed him another box of biscuits, 

 with a picture of a little nigger-boy on the lid, and 

 asked: 



" ' What do you see on this ? ' 



" To which he eagerly replied : 



" ' Wtist schwarz Bub ! ' (= A wild black boy !) 



" Rolf then received his reward, and I took a grateful 

 leave of the Moekels accompanied by little Lola. 



"This experience of coming into personal contact 

 with Rolf's powers of self-expression made a deep and 

 lasting impression on me. In spite of all the accounts 



