22 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

fect tranquillity, I often took Kees with me when I went
hunting; and when he saw me preparing for sport, he
exhibited the most lively demonstrations of joy. On the way,
he would climb into the trees to look for gum, of which he
was very fond. Sometimes he discovered to me honey,
deposited in the clefts of rocks, or hollow trees. But, if he
happened to have met with neither honey nor gum, and
his appetite had become sharp by his running about, I always
witnessed a very ludicrous scene. In those cases, he looked
for roots, which he ate with great greediness, especially a
particular kind, which, to his cost, I also found to be very
well tasted and refreshing, and therefore insisted upon sharing
with him. In order to draw these roots out of the ground,
he employed a very ingenious method, which afforded me
much amusement. He laid hold of the herbage with his
teeth, stemmed his fore feet against the ground, and drew
back his head, which gradually pulled out the root. But if
this expedient, for which he employed his whole strength,
did not succeed, he laid hold of the leaves as before, as
close to the ground as possible, and then threw himself
heels over head, which gave such a concussion to the root,
that it never failed to come out.
The Tame “Serpents excepted, there were no animals of
; Baboon. whom Kees stood in such great dread as of his
own species,—perhaps owing to a consciousness of loss of ©
natural capacity. Sometimes he heard the cry of other
apes among the mountains, and, terrified as he was, he
yet answered them. But, if they approached nearer, and
he saw any of them, he fled, with a hideous cry, crept
between our legs, and trembled over his whole body. It was
very difficult to compose him, and it required some time
before he recovered from his fright.
The Cunning “Like all other animals, Kees was addicted to
ofthe stealing. He understood admirably well how
Baboon. to loose the strings of a basket, in order to take