2 BEASTS AND MEN 
not remain for long in the Prussian capital, but sold his seals 
and returned home to Hamburg. Unfortunately the 
animals were not sold for hard cash, but were handed over 
on the strength of a promise of future payment—a promise 
which completely slipped the memory of the purchaser—but 
in spite of this there was, owing to the great success of the 
exhibitions both in Hamburg and in Berlin, a considerable 
profit on the whole transaction, and my father was far from 
dissatisfied with his new venture. 
From the time of this seal incident onwards my father 
commenced to carry on a trade in living animals, in addi- 
tion to his work asa purveyor of food-fish. Indeed, although 
he had never before thought of making any money out of 
it, he already possessed a small menagerie, including goats, 
a cow, a monkey, a talking parrot, fowls, geese, etc., to 
which ‘some more common seals, a polar bear, hyzenas, and 
other mammals and birds were presently added. The little 
menagerie was set up in Spielbudenplatz, and visitors 
were charged an entrance fee of four Hamburg’ shillings. 
My father did not again travel about exhibiting his seals, but 
sold them to the owners of itinerant circuses and menageries, 
by whom they used to be shown to a credulous and unscien- 
tific public as walruses, or even as mermaids! 
Thus from my earliest childhood I was accustomed to 
dealing with living animals. I was born on the roth of June, 
1844, and had two brothers and three sisters. My mother 
died in 1865, and, my father marrying a second time, I sub- 
sequently had two half-brothers, John Hagenbeck of Col-. 
ombo, Ceylon, and Gustav Hagenbeck, who still resides in 
Hamburg. My early education was somewhat meagre, for I 
only went to school when I could spare the time from my work 
with the fish and live beasts, and this did not amount to more’ 
than three months in the year. It was not that my father 
failed to appreciate the benefits of a good education; on the 
contrary, he deemed a great part of the customary instruction 
thoroughly necessary. But he was an eminently practical 
