THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 21 



THEY VOW THEY WILL KILL US ALL 



The farmer folk say they will kill us all. I don't blame 

 them for feeling so bitter against us. You see, we baboon- 

 folk don't think like you humanfolk do. We think that 

 all the world is free to every creature as well as everything 

 which grows upon it. I suppose it is because you have 

 brain lobes which haven't started to develop in us yet, 

 so we see things differently to what you do. It is really 

 no wonder though that the farmer men get so angry with 

 us. There are evil people in our tribe, as there are in 

 yours. Some of our people steal forth and kill poor little 

 innocent lambs. They don't eat their flesh, but just tear 

 them open and suck up the curdled milk in their stomachs. 

 I don't just know how our folk found out about there being 

 milk in the lambs' stomachs. I was told that a Dassievanger, 

 or Berghaan eagle, killed and partly ate a lamb. When 

 he had flown oif, some inquisitive baboonfolk went to see 

 what he had been doing. They found the remains of a 

 lamb with the stomach partly torn. In handling it, some 

 milk got on their fingers, and thus they found it was good 

 to eat. After that they killed lambs themselves, and tore 

 out their stomachs to get the milk. It is only a few of 

 our tribe who are guilty of such dreadful practices. A 

 good many of us have learned a new dodge, which has 

 made the farmer hate us worse than ever. We have learned 

 that there is delicious food inside the eggs of ostriches ; so, 

 whenever we find a nest, we break the eggs and have a 

 feast. Once we scared a hen ostrich off her nest and were 

 busy feasting on the eggs, when up ran the cock ostrich. 

 Before we could scatter, he hit one of our folk a terrific 

 whack, and with another steam hammer-hke kick, broke 

 the leg of a second. We ran off in terror, and from a safe 

 retreat mournfully watched that ostrich rain blow after 

 blow on our comrade until he was dead. 



