10 THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 



rooted. We did our best to crush it with our teeth, but the 

 oyster was in an awkward position, and our teeth slipped. 

 Then an appalling discovery was made. The tide was 

 cutting us off. We made one last desperate effort to 

 rescue our sister, but failed. Bidding her a sad farewell, 

 we hurried to the shore. Just then, a succession of little 

 shrieks were heard, and bounding from rock to rock, we saw 

 our doomed sister's child trying to reach her. It did reach 

 her. She hugged it to her breast with her free hand. We 

 sat helpless on the shore and watched the water slowly rise 

 up and up. When the waves reached the mother's breast 

 she thrust her child on to her shoulder. When the tide 

 was lapping her shoulders she pushed her little one on to 

 the top of her head. Presently a wave washed over them, 

 and both vanished. 



I shall never forget that sad scene, and the heroism of 

 that unselfish mother, whose one thought right to the end 

 was to save her child. 



OUR HOME LIFE 



You humanfolk who are so clumsy at climbing, think it 

 a marvellous performance to see us baboonfolk scramble, 

 either up or down a krantz as straight upright as the wall of 

 a house. You see, for many thousands of years our folk 

 have practised rock-climbing, so I suppose we inherit the 

 ability to climb. Of course we couldn't climb up the 

 precipices if they were quite smooth. There are always 

 little crevice*^ and rough bits where we can get a grip to 

 help us along. If it had not been for our krantz-climbing 

 powers we baboonfolk would long ago have been killed by 

 our enemies. There isn't a single enemy we fear who can 

 climb up to our homes in the crevices of the krantzes. At 

 night, as many of us collect together as the cave or shelter 

 wUl hold, and we huddle up all together like a ball, throwing 



