Page:Phosphor (1888).djvu/88

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PHOSPHOR.

young ones like that," she added, pointing to the little baboon, whose mother was feeding it.

She called to one of the two servants who always attended me, and told him to take the young one and throw it into the crater.

The mother, on hearing this, set up an awful howl, and pressed the little one to her breast.

The father sat with his hideous head bowed on his hairy chest, taking no notice.

I asked her to spare it. "No!" she said, "It must die. If it lived, it would only breed others like itself."

And, in spite of the mother's resistance and yells, the little one was torn from her and carried away, moaning in the most piteous manner, to be thrown into the crater.

I followed, and saw the creature take the little one by the tail, and toss it into the boiling mass below.

Hardly had it passed over the side of the crater, when the mother, who had followed to see the last of her young one, uttered a piercing shriek, and jumped in after it.

The father stood on the brink, looking at the spot where she had disappeared, moaning, and beating his chest with his fists.

He made a weird picture, standing in the glaring light that issued from the crater. His long