220 BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



males. Immediately commencing carpenter, I built 

 them houses to sleep in ; each had a separate apartment, 

 so contrived that their ordure should pass through the 

 bottom of it; an earthen pan placed under each re- 

 ceived whatever fell, which being duly emptied and 

 washed, they were thus kept perfectly sweet and clean. 

 In the day time they had the range of a hall, and at 

 night retired each to his own bed, never intruding into 

 that of another. 



" Puss grew presently familiar, would leap into my 

 lap, raise himself upon his hinder feet, and bite the hair 

 from my temples. He would suffer me to take him up, 

 and carry him about in my arms, and has more than 

 once fallen fast asleep upon my knee. He was ill 

 three days, during which time I nursed him, kept him 

 apart from his fellows, that they might not molest him, 

 (for, like many other wild animals, they persecute one 

 of their own species that is sick,) and by constant care, 

 and trying him with a variety of herbs, restored him to 

 perfect health. No creature could be more grateful 

 than my patient after his recovery ; a sentiment which 

 he most significantly expressed by licking my hand, 

 first the back of it, then the palm, then every finger 

 separately, as if anxious to leave no part of it unsa- 

 luted j a ceremony which he never performed but once 



