ughtless young ones--stupid and easily amused.
Sh! It is a prison he means."

So then they asked Chee-Chee what rare animal it could be that they
should give the Doctor--one the White Men had not seen before. And the
Major of the Marmosettes asked,

"Have they an iguana over there?"

But Chee-Chee said, "Yes, there is one in the London Zoo."

And another asked, "Have they an okapi?"

But Chee-Chee said, "Yes. In Belgium, where my organ-grinder took me
five years ago, they had an okapi in a big city they call Antwerp."

And another asked, "Have they a pushmi-pullyu?"

Then Chee-Chee said, "No. No White Man has ever seen a pushmi-pullyu.
Let us give him that."

THE TENTH CHAPTER

THE RAREST ANIMAL OF ALL

PUSHMI-PULLYUS are now extinct. That means, there aren't any more.
But long ago, when Doctor Dolittle was alive, there were some of them
still left in the deepest jungles of Africa; and even then they were
very, very scarce. They had no tail, but a head at each end, and sharp
horns on each head. They were very shy and terribly hard to catch.
The black men get most of their animals by sneaking up behind them
while they are not looking. But you could not do this with the
pushmi-pullyu--because, no matter which way you came towards him, he
was always facing you. And besides, only one half of him slept at a
time. The other head was always awake--and watching. This was why
they were never caught and never seen in Zoos. Though many of the
greatest huntsmen and the cleverest menagerie-keepers spent years of
their lives searching through the jungles in all weathers for
pushmi-pullyus, not a single one had ever been caught. Even then,
years ago, he was the only animal in the world with two heads.

Well, the monkeys set out hunting for this animal through the forest.
And after they had gone a good many miles, one of them found peculiar
footprints near the edge of a river; and they knew that a pushmi-pullyu
must be very near that spot.

Then they went along the bank of the river a little way and they saw a
place where the grass was high and thick; and they guessed that he was
in there.

So they all joined hands and made a great circle round the high grass.
The pushmi-pullyu heard them coming; and he tried hard to break through
the ring of monkeys. But he couldn't do it. When he saw that it was
no use trying to escape, he sat down and waited to see what they wanted.

They asked him if he would go wi