REMINISCENCES FROM THE MELBOURNE ZOO. 
217 
raised; but although there were several men about, none of them cared 
to come to conclusions with the little thing that had already made a 
name for itself as a fire-eater. On duty at the gate was a quaint old 
Irishman, who, hearing the commotion, determined to be in it. How 
could an Irishman resist a scrap? He hastily got someone to relieve 
him, and raced down to the spot. As there was an escaped animal to 
be captured, obviously the only thing to be done was to capture it, and 
so he caught it by the horns and called upon another man to assist him. 
But the other man knew so much to the anoa’s detriment that he begged 
to be excused. 
“No,” he said, “I’d advise you to let it go, too. I don’t want to be 
murdered.” 
A second man was willing to try, but the anoa contemptuously 
tossed him aside while striving to free himself from the grip of iron 
that he strongly resented. Yet, however much he jumped and spun 
around, the old man hung on; being bumped into fences, hurled around 
corners, and flung violently on the pavement, but he was not going to 
be beaten by a bit of a shpalpeen like that, not if he knew it. Indeed, 
he knew that however he might be bruised in this tussle, it would prob- 
ably be certain death to let go ; but he wanted help, and wanted to get 
out of his unfortunate contract, and so as he spun round he cried for 
aid from the worried bystanders. 
“Where are the keepers?” he yelled, as he went round and round his 
impromptu merry-go-round. “I’ll let him go, I will, sure’s fate! If 
the keepers don’t come soon. I’ll let him go, so I will! If I let him go 
he’ll kill ’em all, he will, an’ serve ’em right, I say! Serve ’em right, 
yes; why don’t they come? I’ll let him go, an’ where’ll they all be then. 
I’d like to know? I’ll let him go-o-o!” 
All the time he hung on for dear life and for the honor of old Ire- 
land, until the anoa got exhausted and seemed ready to appeal to the 
bystanders to help him to let the man go. Finally all the keepers together 
went to their comrade’s assistance, and managed to overpower the savage 
little creature; yet although he was no bigger than a goat, it took the 
combined and full strength of six men to push him back into the place 
from which he should never have emerged. 
There has never been more than this family of three anoas in the 
gardens, but the staff does not seem to fret over the fact. They are 
hoping that, at least in their time, circumstances will prevent the importa- 
tion of a successor to the one they remember so well, and love far better 
now he is preserved in the National Museum. 
