AN ARMADILLO AS A PET. 



Nurse McCully of the Royal 

 infirmary, Liverpool, has an Armadillo 

 as a pet. This little animal, which is 

 a native of South America, was given 

 to the nurse by a sailor when it was 

 quite a baby, weighing only three 

 pounds. It was most advantageously 

 reared on peptonized milk, — ordinary 

 cow's milk being too strong, — and the 

 little creature now weighs 1 1 pounds. 

 Its present diet is peculiar, consisting 

 of bread and milk, bacon, apples, and 

 sardines. Also, it supports its adopted 



country by eating English tomatoes, 

 but rejecting American ones. It 

 sleeps all day, rising at 6 p. m. and 

 running all over the ward. Its chief 

 amusement seems to be tearing to 

 pieces the patients' slippers. It knows 

 its mistress, and will readily come to 

 her. The little Armadillo sleeps in a 

 warm barrel, furnished with bran and 

 flannel. It has now been at the Royal 

 infirmary for about four years. — Strand 

 Mas'azine. 



AFRICAN FOLK LORE. 



African Literature is very rich 

 in fables of animals, which may be 

 divided into the two categories of 

 moral apologues and simple narrations. 

 In the former such an identity is 

 noticeable with stories of the peoples 

 of Asia and Europe as almost to cause 

 us to think that both proceed from a 

 common source whence they weredrawn 

 in prehistoric times. To this may, 

 however, be opposed the hypothesis of 

 an original and simultaneous origin in 

 different places ; a question for the 

 discussion of which we have not yet 

 all the elements. One of the most 

 brilliant of the African apologues 

 comes from Somaliland, and is perhaps 

 better than the corresponding Euro- 



pean fable : " The Lion, the Hyena, 

 and the Fox went hunting, and 

 caught a Sheep. The Lion said, ' Let 

 us divide the prey.' The Hyena said, 

 ' I will take the hinder parts, the Lion 

 the fore parts, and the Fox can have 

 the feet and entrails.' Then the Lion 

 struck the the Hyena on the head so 

 hard that one of its eyes fell out, then 

 turned to the Fox and said, ' Now you 

 divide it' ' The head, the intestines, 

 and the feet are for the Hyena and me; 

 all the rest belongs to the Lion.' 'Who 

 taught you to judge in that way?' 

 asked the Lion. The Fox answered, 

 ' The Hyena's eye.' " — Popular Science 

 Monthly. 



