THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 147 



helping ourselves to mealies, Kafir corn, fruit, and pumpkins, 

 which grew not far from the forest in which we dwelt. 

 A farmer-man said these things were his special property, 

 but we didn't believe in any one being allowed to be so 

 greedy, so we thought we were quite justified in taking a 

 small portion. That farmer fellow, however, didn't think 

 as we did about the matter. He declared war against us, 

 and planned out many kinds of ways to kill us. Many times 

 he waylaid us unawares, and shot several of us with his 

 gun. My friend has already told you how several of the 

 clan were cleverly trapped in a mealie field. I, too, got 

 trapped. It was in this way. 



A CLEVER STRATAGEM 



One day from our retreat high up in a forest tree, we 

 spied the farmer carrying something. He threw it to the 

 ground at the edge of the forest and departed. When 

 he was a safe distance away we sent a couple of scouts to 

 find out what he had been up to. They returned and 

 reported that about a dozen ripe mealie cobs were lying 

 upon the ground. The scouts said they had carefully 

 smelt them over and tasted some, but there was no trace 

 of poison upon them. 



We all trooped off to see for ourselves. Yes, true 

 enough the mealies were there. Satisfying ourselves they 

 were not poisoned, we ate them up. Next day we visited 

 the spot and found a lot more. This went on for several 

 days. We were delighted. It was quite clear to us that 

 the farmer had repented and that his conscience was sorely 

 troubling him for having murdered so many of our clan, 

 and otherwise persecuted us, and that this was his way 

 of expiating his crimes. 



One morning we trooped off as usual to see if more 

 mealies had been left for us. Wc chattered, joked, and 



