AN ARMADILLO AS A PET. 
Nurse McCully of the Royal 
infirmary, Liverpool, has an Armadillo 
as a pet. This little animal, which is 
a native of South America, was given 
to the nurse by a sailor when it was 
quite a baby, weighing only three 
pounds. It was most advantageously 
reared on peptonized milk, — ordinary 
cow's milk being too strong, — and the 
little creature now weighs 1 1 pounds. 
Its present diet is peculiar, consisting 
of bread and milk, bacon, apples, and 
sardines. Also, it supports its adopted 
country by eating English tomatoes, 
but rejecting American ones. It 
sleeps all day, rising at 6 p. m. and 
running all over the ward. Its chief 
amusement seems to be tearing to 
pieces the patients' slippers. It knows 
its mistress, and will readily come to 
her. The little Armadillo sleeps in a 
warm barrel, furnished with bran and 
flannel. It has now been at the Royal 
infirmary for about four years. — Strand 
Magazine. 
AFRICAN FOLK LORE. 
African Literature is very rich 
in fables of animals, which may be 
divided into the two categories of 
moral apologues and simple narrations. 
In the former such an identity is 
noticeable with stories of the peoples 
of Asia and Europe as almost to cause 
us to think that both proceed from a 
common source whence they were drawn 
in prehistoric times. To this may, 
however, be opposed the hypothesis of 
an original and simultaneous origin in 
different places; a question for the 
discussion of which we have not yet 
all the elements. One of the most 
brilliant of the African apologues 
comes from Somaliland, and is perhaps 
better than the corresponding Euro- 
pean fable : " The Lion, the Hyena, 
and the Fox went hunting, and 
caught a Sheep. The Lion said, ' Let 
us divide the prey.' The Hyena said, 
4 1 will take the hinder parts, the Lion 
the fore parts, and the Fox can have 
the feet and entrails.' Then the Lion 
struck the the Hyena on the head so 
hard that one of its eyes fell out, then 
turned to the Fox and said, ' Now you 
divide it' ' The head, the intestines, 
and the feet are for the Hyena and me; 
all the rest belongs to the Lion.' 'Who 
taught you to judge in that way ? ' 
asked the Lion. The Fox answered, 
' The Hyena's eye.' " — Popular Science 
Monthly. 
12 
