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192 J 22 FABLED STORIES FROM THE ZOO.
my sweet breath. Of course it was an easy
prey, and I needed not even to trouble to coil
myself round the thing and crush its bones.
However, as it took me some time to digest
my dainty food, I stopped in the jungle, and
made no haste back to our usual haunt When,
some time afterwards, I did return in quest of
my mate, I found her not, and was soon
informed by the flight of a carrion-eating vulture
that there was something unexpected by the
margin of the cornfield. And there, amongst
some stray banana-trees, I found her dead and
rigid, just a moment before the voracious bird
was going to carry her off. I hissed and
showed my fangs, and scared the coward
away; but my poor mate was fearfully
mutilated. Her head was missing, but it had not
been cut or bitten off. I knew at once who had
been her destroyer, by the dastardly trick that
had been performed. She had had a battle
with a monkey, and he, at an unexpected
moment, had quickly seized her by the neck,
as these expert mammals do, and rubbed her
head against a rough stone till the friction
caused her death. I vowed vengeance upon all
the monkey tribe, and had a terrific fight with
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