344 MY LIFE 



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 sometimes 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 crea- 

 ture, 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 

 remarkable strength of its little fingers and toes, which catch 

 hold of anything with the firmness of a vice. About a week 

 ago I bought a little monkey with a long tail, and as the baby 

 was very lonely while we were out in the daytime, I put 

 the little monkey into the cradle to keep it warm. Per- 

 haps you will say that this was not proper. ' How could you 



