186 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



creatures more attractive than these are not to be found in the 

 steppe. They dart to and fro on the ground; they clamber on the 

 branches of the shrubs and trees; they look down from the hills of 

 the termites and from the roofs of the houses; they make their way 

 even under the sand. Some species vie with the humming-birds 

 in the brightness and glitter of their colours; others fascinate by 

 the swiftness and grace of their movements; others attract by 

 the quaintness of their forms. Even after the sun, in whose light 

 they live and move, has set, and most of these active creatures 

 have gone to rest, the geckos are still left to the naturalist. During 

 the day these lizards remain quietly fixed to the tree-boles and the 

 rafters, but as night sets in they begin their activity. With loud 

 and musical calls (to which they owe their name " Gecko") they hunt 

 about without any fear of man. The ancients libelled them and 

 placed them among the most venomous of animals, and even to-day 

 this superstition lurks in the minds of the ignorant. They are noc- 

 turnal animals, and as such somewhat different from the diurnal 

 members of the lizard race. Thus one of their peculiar characteris- 

 tics is the cushion-like expansion of the fingers and toes, whose soles 

 are furnished with numerous closely appressed plaits of skin, which 

 act like suckers and give the geckos extraordinary climbing powers. 

 These plaited cushions were long ago erroneously interpreted as 

 poison-secreting glands, — an idea which now seems absurd enough.*' 

 In truth the geckos are as harmless as they are attractive, and in a 

 very short time they win the affection of every unprejudiced ob- 

 server. Most valuable domestic pets they are, for they pursue with 

 eagerness and success all kinds of troublesome insects. In every room 

 of the mud and straw houses their nightly activity may be observed; 

 they climb about with all but unfailing security, adhering by their 

 plaited feet to almost anything; head up or head down they run on 

 vertical or on horizontal surfaces, teasing and chasing one another 

 in pleasant fashion, making one merry too with their musical notes; 

 they give one nothing but pleasure and do nothing but good; what 

 reasonable man can fail to become their friend? 



But they are reptiles still, and must remain under the curse; 

 they cannot vie with the children of the air — the birds. And one 



