THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 15 



THE FOODS ON WHICH WE LIVE 



We don't grow crops or keep animals to be killed and 

 eaten or to lay eggs, or to give milk. We just eat anything 

 which is good to eat that God has provided. We are 

 to-day doing just what your ancestors did hundreds of 

 thousands of years ago. If you study that science which is 

 called Anthropology, you will find that your race once 

 lived in caves, and their ways and habits were just like ours. 

 Your ancestors, in those far-distant days, lived on what 

 they could find in mountain, veld, forest, and stream. 



There is no need for any of us baboonfolk to starve. 

 There is plenty of food for all. We are practically vege- 

 tarians. When we get tired of that food, we hunt for 

 beetles, caterpillars, centipedes, scorpions, and other creepy 

 things.. The scorpions are our daintiest morsels. You 

 know the fellows I mean. They are the kind which hide 

 under stones. They are as long as your thumb, with nippers 

 like a crab, and a tail with a dreadful sting at the end of it. 

 We find plenty of those scorpions by turning over the 

 stones on the hillsides. As soon as the scorpion is alarmed 

 he raises his tail, ready to prod his sting into his enemy. 

 So, we just grab the tail between our finger and thumb, 

 and nip off the end of it, with the sting. Then we pop 

 the scorpion into our mouth, and chew him up. They have 

 such a delicious flavour. 



THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF FOODS 



There is a tree which is known to the Dutch as Kepersol 

 or Nooiensboom. They grow in great numbers on the 

 shady sides of ravines, amongst the mountains in the Karoo 

 and other places. The roots of these provide us with 

 both food and water. We chew them up and spit out the 



