19. THE ZEBRA STALLION.

(The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey's Library, G. Krönlein's Manuscript, p. 17.)

THE ZEBRA.

Thou who art thrown at by the great (shepherd) boys, Thou whose head the (kirrie's) throw misses!

Thou dappled fly,

Thou party-coloured one,

Who spiest for those,

That spy for thee!

Thou who, womanlike,

Art full of jealousy.

THE Baboons, it is said, used to disturb the Zebra Mares in drinking. But one of the Mares became

the mother of a foal. to suckle (the young

grow up.

The others then helped her stallion), that he might soon

When he was grown up, and they were in want of water, they brought him to the water. The Baboons,

seeing this, came, as they formerly were used to do, into their way, and kept them from the water.

While the Mares stood thus, the Stallion stepped forward, and spoke to one of the Baboons, "Thou gum-eater's child!"

The Baboon said to the Stallion, "Please open thy mouth, that I may see what thou livest on." The Stallion opened his mouth, and it was milky.

Then the Stallion said to the Baboon, "Please open

The Baboon did

But the Baboon

thy mouth also, that I may see." so, and there was some gum in it. quickly licked some milk off the Stallion's tongue. The Stallion on this became angry, took the Baboon by his shoulders, and pressed him upon a hot, flat rock. Since that day the Baboon has a bald place on his back.

The Baboon said, lamenting, "I, my mother's child, I, the gum-eater, am outdone by this milk-eater!"

THE ZEBRA.

Thou //ari shrub (i. e., tough shrub, Dutch,

"critdorn "),

Thou who art of strong smell,

Thou who rollest always in soft ground,

Whose body retains the dust,

Thou split kirrie of the shepherd boys, Thou split knob of a kirrie.

Thou who drivest away by thy neighing

The hunter who seeketh thee.

Thou who crossest all rivers

As if they were but one.

20. THE LOST CHILD.-[A TALE.]

(From Sir James E. Alexander's "Expedition of Discovery into the Interior of Africa," vol. ii. pp. 234, 235.)

THE children belonging to a kraal were playing at some little distance from the huts with bows and arrows; in the evening they all returned home, save one, a boy of five or six years old, who lingered behind, and was soon surrounded by a troop of baboons, who carried him up a mountain.

The people turned out to recover the boy, and for days they hunted after him in vain; he was nowhere to be seen; the baboons also had left the neighbourhood.

A year after this had occurred, a mounted hunter came to the kraal from a distance, and told the people that he had crossed at such a place the spoor of baboons, along with the footmarks of a child. The people went to the place which the hunter had indicated, and they soon saw what they were in search of, viz., the boy, sitting on a pinnacle of rock, in company with a large baboon. The moment the people

approached, the baboon took up the boy, and scampered off with him; but, after a close pursuit, the boy was recovered. He seemed quite wild, and tried to run away to the baboons again; however, he was brought back to the kraal, and when he recovered his speech, he said that the baboons had been very kind to him; that they ate scorpions and spiders themselves, but brought him roots, gum, and wild raisins, seeing that he did not touch the two first-named delicacies, and that they always allowed him to drink first at the waters.