218 THE MUNGOOSE 



ness as the mungoose. It pries into everything, 

 sometimes with disastrous results. As an in- 

 stance of this, I was travelling on one occasion 

 between Zanzibar and Mozambique, and one of my 

 lady fellow-passengers had purchased a tame mun- 

 goose at the former place. It used to run about 

 the decks and poke its curious little nose wherever 

 it could. One hot afternoon — it happened to be 

 on a day which its mistress had selected for the 

 display of quite her loveliest and most expensive 

 costume — ^the mungoose discovered that by care- 

 fuly choosing its time it could run in and out 

 of the steering-chain pipes which skirted the 

 deck, and which are necessarily about half an 

 inch thick in the blackest and most forbidding of 

 engine oils — but I need not continue the narration 

 further, nor harrow the feelings of my lady 

 readers. I will only add that, as the result of 

 the painful sequel, this particular mungoose 

 mysteriously disappeared, and was seen no more 

 on board. 



The mungoose — whatever may be this animal's 

 correct plural designatiori^ — is extremely fond of 

 eggs, and therefore a sad source of tribulation 

 unless it can be kept out of the poultry run, and 

 few poultry runs there assuredly are capable of 

 excluding such a weasel-shaped, sinuous busy- 

 body. 



Its appearance is so well known as to render 

 a description in detail almost unnecessary, but 

 for those who have not yet made this animal's 

 acquaintance it may be described as a somewhat 

 stoat-shaped creature of a pale brown colour. 



