oney,
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. But Kees was no fool. As soon as he found such a root, and I
was not near enough to seize upon my share of it, he devoured it in the
greatest haste, keeping his eyes all the while riveted on me. He
accurately measured the distance I had to pass before I could get to
him; and I was sure of coming too late. Sometimes, however, when he had
made a mistake in his calculation, and I came upon him sooner than he
expected, he endeavoured to hide the root, in which case I compelled
him, by a box on the ear, to give me up my share. But this treatment
caused no malice between us; we remained as good friends as ever. 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.
"When Kees happened to tire on the road, he mounted upon the back of one
of my dogs, who was so obliging as to carry him whole hours. One of
them, which was larger and stronger than the rest, hit upon a very
ingenious artifice, to avoid being pressed into this piece of service.
As soon as Kees leaped upon his back he stood still, and let the train
pass, without moving from the spot. Kees still persisted in his
intention, till we were almost out of his sight, when he found himself
at length compelled to dismount, upon which both the baboon and dog
exerted all their speed to overtake us. The latter, however, gave him
the start, and kept a good look-out after him, that he might not serve
him in the same manner again. In fact, Kees enjoyed a certain authority
with all my dogs, for which he perhaps was indebted to the superiority
of his instinct. He could not endure a
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