92 WILD LIFE AMONGST BEASTIES response to a cheerful song. It is the firelight of the forest, the resource of primeval man, the guardian of the camp, the terror of the great growler who made the heavens reverberate in the evening.

The contrast with the animals of the camp becomes the greater ; one contemplates the little goat that nestles down at one's feet, or by a case of Piper Heidsieck, as sweetly as if it knew no other home the advertising and useful ass who hee-haws to the croaking of the frogs—the (thank God) sometimes silent camel, who, were he more noisy, could scarcely be forgiven his stink—the cricket sounding just the same as on one's grandfather's hearth : all so happy in their association, and homely by contrast with the great man-eating beasts which wait outside the charmed circle.

It being some years since I found myself in a Zoological Gardens with all the beasts let loose, where man is only a sample of one of God's creations turned out amongst many other varieties, it is not to be wondered at that sometimes sleep does not come too early, and that then it is liable to be broken.

Last night it was the gentleman whose fingerprint had been taken on the soft cotton soil who evinced from a short distance his fondness for our society. He made remarks to us, probably insulting, at short intervals all through the night, from various positions in regard to the camp. This is where the unaccustomed European, used to being shut up in a safe cage all night, feels foolish. He