344 MY LIFE [Chap. 



skill as a nurse. The little innocent was not weaned, and I 

 had nothing proper to feed it with, so was obliged to give it 

 rice-water. I got a large-mouthed bottle, making two holes 

 in the cork, through one of which I inserted a large quill so 

 that the baby could suck. I fitted up a box for a cradle 

 with a mat for it to lie upon, which I had washed and 

 changed every day. I feed it four times a day, and wash it 

 and brush its hair every day, which it likes very much, only 

 crying when it is hungry or dirty. In about a week I gave 

 it the rice-water a little thicker, and always sweetened it to 

 make it nice. I am afraid you would call it an ugly baby, 

 for it has a dark brown skin and red hair, a very large mouth, 

 but very pretty little hands and feet. It has now cut its two 

 lower front teeth, and the uppers are coming. At first it 

 would not sleep alone at night, but cried very much ; so I 

 made it a pillow of an old stocking, which it likes to hug, and 

 now sleeps very soundly. It has powerful lungs, and some- 

 times screams tremendously, so I hope it will live. 



"But I must now tell you how I came to take charge of 

 it. Don't be alarmed ; I was the cause of its mother's death. 

 It happened as follows : — I was out shooting in the jungle 

 and saw something up a tree which I thought was a large 

 monkey or orang-utan, so I fired at it, and down fell this little 

 baby — in its mother's arms. What she did up in the tree of 

 course I can't imagine, but as she ran about the branches 

 quite easily, I presume she was a wild ' woman of the woods ; ' 

 so I have preserved her skin and skeleton, and am trying to 

 bring up her only daughter, and hope some day to introduce 

 her to fashionable society at the Zoological Gardens. When 

 its poor mother fell mortally wounded, the baby was plunged 

 head over ears in a swamp about the consistence of pea- 

 soup, and when I got it out looked very pitiful. It clung to 

 me very hard when I carried it home, and having got its little 

 hands unawares into my beard, it clutched so tight that I 

 had great difficulty in extricating myself. Its mother, poor 

 creature, had very long hair, and while she was running 

 about the trees like a mad woman, the little baby had to 

 hold fast to prevent itself from falling, which accounts for the 



