84 THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 



out again in pursuit, our chief suddenly commanded us to 

 halt. Glancing in the direction in which he was looking, 

 we saw a man hastening towards us. He was evidently 

 the naturalist man's friend, and had seen what was going 

 on by means of an invention of the humanfolk, which 

 makes things a long way off appear close. Fearing to be 

 cut off from the rear perhaps by other humanfolk, our 

 leader thought it best for us to retire to our rocky fastnesses. 

 Now that we had rescued the child, our anger had cooled 

 down, and we no longer bore the naturalist-man any malice. 



TRACKED 



About two years after this adventure, there was a great 

 drought, and food became very scarce. We planned out 

 a raid on a neighbouring farmer's crops. He not only had 

 mealies which were just getting ripe, but he also had many 

 acres of sweet potatoes, and what humanfolk boys call 

 " monkey nuts." All these three things are the most delicious 

 of foods. Ask any of our children what they like best, 

 and they will instantly answer, " Young milky mealies, sweet 

 potatoes, and monkey nuts." Once our folk get a taste 

 of these foods, or in fact any of the other foods grown by 

 the farmerfolk, they get quite a dislike to their ordinary 

 diet, such as the gum of the mimosa, the soft bark of certain 

 trees, wild fruits, berries, seeds, bulbs, sweet reeds, young 

 shoots, scorpions, centipedes, beetles, lizards, and snails. 



At break of day we silently stole forth and loaded our 

 stomachs, our cheek pouches, and our arms with the farmer's 

 produce, and retreated as quietly as we came without being 

 seen. 



A few days later we repeated the raid. Then we decided 

 that it would not be safe to visit that farm again, at least 

 for a time, for fear the owner's anger should be roused. It 

 was already, it seems, for he had been planning an attack 



