THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 43 



Victoria Falls, and we used to watch them from our rocky 

 homes. They were a funny sort of people, and all our 

 clan, at first, thought they were a lot of lunatics. Some 

 would potter about prodding the ground with sticks, others 

 gathered leaves, flowers, and berries, and sat down and 

 stared at them for an hour at a time with a round piece 

 of glass which they looked through. Some of them scared 

 the Kafirs nearly to death by measuring their skulls, their 

 faces, their bodies, and their limbs. It amused us greatly 

 to watch them. One day, when we were trooping along 

 a mountain, we suddenly came upon one of these fellows 

 turning over a lot of pebbles on the bank of the Zambesi 

 below the great Falls. He looked frightfully scared when 

 he saw us, for there were over fifty of our folk. However, 

 we are, as a rule, afraid of humanfolk, because we never 

 know what new dodge they may be up to. You see, most 

 of them carry a little thing in their pockets which spits 

 fire and drives a hard pellet, which can penetrate right 

 into anything soft like our bodies. Then, most of us 

 haven't learned to recognise a walking-stick from a gun, 

 when at a distance. Well, anyway, we clambered up the 

 rocks and basked in the warm sun, and at intervals hunted 

 for lizards and scorpions under the stones. Our leader 

 sat on a rock not far from the wise man, who was looking 

 at us through what you call field-glasses. 



After a short while, our leader was satisfied the human- 

 folk fellow was a harmless sort of person, but he never 

 took any risks. He beckoned to one of our young men, 

 and gave him instructions to keep a keen eye on the man, 

 and to give the alarm if he saw anything of a suspicious 

 nature. Then he climbed up to where we were, and select- 

 ing a sunny ledge, crossed his arms, propped his back 

 against a rock, and dozed. 



