THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 153 



The hair of my body is ringed black and yellow, the black 

 rings being the longest. I am darkest on the head. The 

 colour of my body is lighter. 



We Samango fellows don't like our cousins the Vervets, 

 so we never associate with them. We look upon them as 

 common folk. We live in families away in the quietest 

 and deepest kloofs and gorges, where the forest trees grow 

 thick, and are matted all over the top with creepers. We 

 love these gloomy, dark haunts, and seldom wander far 

 from them. Our food is what God provides for us in the 

 shape of berries, wild fruits, buds, sweet bark, seeds, and 

 any insects we can find. There are several kinds of cater- 

 pillars of which we are very fond. Butterflies come along 

 and lay millions of eggs on the leaves in the tree tops. These 

 eggs hatch out into tiny caterpillars. We leave them till 

 they grow big and fat with the leaves they feast on, then 

 we feast on them. You humanfolk are very fortunate in 

 having such a great number of things to choose from. 

 Why, I am told there are hundreds, and even thousands, 

 of different kinds of foods which you people can eat. Our 

 diet is very limited. After all, I think we are much better 

 off, because our food being so simple, and having to take so 

 much exercise in order to get it, we are healthy and strong, 

 and don't keep getting sick like you humanfolk. Nearly 

 all your sickness is due to eating too much, also from 

 eating the wrong kinds of foods, living so much in stuffy 

 houses and breathing bad air. 



Our tribe are only found in the dense forest districts 

 along the east coast of South Africa and up as far as 

 Angola. 



The Zulu people hunt and kill us for our beautiful skins, 

 which they wear around their loins. When the Zulus were 

 a great warlike nation, one of the regiments wore the skins 

 of us poor monkeyfolk to distinguish themselves from all 

 the rest. In those days we were constantly hunted and 



