ded by them like a human child. I was very proud of
him and his behavior. As we went on our way, a mouse ran out of a
hole in the foundations of a house in front of us. Kari turned
around, curled up his trunk, put it in his mouth and ran. You see
elephants are not afraid of anything except mice, for a mouse can
crawl into an elephant's trunk and disappear in his head. I was
humiliated beyond measure at Kari's behavior. He did not stop
till he reached the open ground which we had left half an hour
before. The monkey was still sitting in the tree. Seeing us, he
shook a purse at me. He had stolen somebody's purse and was
holding it in his hands waiting for it to be ransomed.

Monkeys are very much like bandits. Once, I remember, my little
sister who was two months old, was lying in a basket on the
veranda. Suddenly we heard her crying, and going out on the
veranda found that she was not there. Basket and all had
disappeared. Then we looked up at a tree and there was an
enormous baboon looking down at us, while with one hand he held
the basket, which was resting on a branch. My father, however,
knew what to do. He sent a servant at once to the bazaar, and in
the meantime brought all of the fruit in the house and spread it
on the floor of the veranda. The monkey shook his head, meaning
that was not ransom enough for him. Very soon the servant
returned with an enormous quantity of bananas. The baboon
immediately came down, and it was remarkable how he brought down
the basket without upsetting it.

My mother, all this while, was weeping silently, leaning against
the door. But now her grief was turned to gladness, for lo, and
behold, there was the baby asleep in the basket on the veranda,
while the baboon sat on a pile of bananas giving a strange monkey
call to other monkeys.

Scarcely had we taken the baby into the house and shut the glass
doors of the veranda, when we heard monkeys hooting and calling
from all directions, leaping from tree to tree and falling with a
great thud on our roof. In ten minutes the veranda became a
regular parliament of monkeys chattering over their dinners.
After this we were very careful about the baby. Every time she
was put out, a man or woman with a stick always watched over her.

Remembering now what had happened to my sister years ago, I
called to the men of the caravan who had not yet started and told
them the monkey had the purse. True enough, one of them was
accusing his servant of