THE CAPTURE OF MOSES 



81 



after that he stood the nail on its flat head, removed 

 his fingers and struck it with the hammer, but, of 

 course, never succeeded in driving it into anything. 



A bunch of sugar-cane was kept for Moses to eat 

 when he wanted it, and to aid him in tearing the 

 hard shell away from it, I kept a club to bruise it. 

 Sometimes he would go and select a stalk of the 

 cane, carry it to the block, take the club in both 

 hands, and try to mash the cane himself ; but as the 

 jar of the stroke often hurt his hands, he learned to 

 avoid this, by letting go as the club descended. He 

 never succeeded in crushing the cane, but would 

 continue his efforts until some one came to his aid. 

 At other times he would drag a stalk of the cane 

 to the cage, poke it through the wires, then bring 

 the club, and poke it through, to get me to mash it 

 for him. 



From time to time I received newspapers sent 

 me from home. Moses could not understand what 

 induced me to sit holding that thing before me, but 

 he wished to try it, and see. He would take a leaf 

 of it, and hold it up before him with both hands, 

 just as he saw me do ; but instead of looking at the 

 paper, he kept his eyes, most of the time, on me. 

 When I would turn mine over, he did the same 

 thing, but half the time had it upside down. He 

 did not appear to care for the pictures, or notice 

 them, except a few times he tried to pick them off 

 the paper ; and one large cut of a dog's head, when 

 held at a short distance from him, he appeared to 

 regard with a little interest, as if he recognised it 



