"The antelopes are very silly, coquettish creatures to wear such
long boas round their necks in this warm country. But, after all,
perhaps they are wise enough, for they have chosen a kind which,
unlike our make of furs, is cold to the touch."

Yollande, in her role of trainer, went on and on like a brook.

"Here, now, is a dromedary. He has a hump on his back, a fatty
exerescence which enables him to bear much fatigue, without eating
or drinking for several days. It is owing to this fat, rather like
a box of provisions on his back, that he can traverse hot and
sandy deserts where it would be difficult to find a single blade
of grass to eat."

Then through the farm bedroom passed long caravans of camels, led
by carnival Arabs, their humps changed into gigantic larders in
which rattled all sorts of canned things. Canned salmon, Russian
caviare, dried biscuits, smoked meats, tongues, sardines, canned
peas, foies-gras, lobsters, and fruits, in fact all those things
which Mother Etienne had seen piled up in many-coloured pyramids
at the best grocery stores. Really it was too ridiculous.--Miss
Booum must have been making fun of her visitor.--That couldn't
really be the best food for camels.

It was still worse when it came to the turn of the hippopotami. A
thousand ill-digested memories from the illustrated papers were in
her mind, all mixed up. Where did the Nile and the Zanzibar flow?
Which was it that separated Egypt from Senegal? And the gigantic
hippopotamus, looking perfectly huge and out-of-place in a gondola
fit for a sultana, appeared to her, floating down the calm stream,
a red fez with a golden star on his head, puffing away at a
peculiar double-bowled pipe, the pride of the collection of a
retired police-officer in the village, who had it from the real
cousin of a sea-captain from Marseilles.

"Do you see those little lumps there enclosed between four boards?
It is a nest of land-tortoises. The largest, called the Giant
tortoise, easily supports on its back a weight of two hundred
pounds. This shell which weighs so heavily is its house. At the
least alarm, it retreats into its house and stays there, till all
danger is past." This plan of walking about with your house on
your back seemed rather a good one to Mother Etienne. You could go
out on rainy days without getting wet, and on cold days it would
keep your back nice and warm.

"Near at hand is a collection of mammals, the kangaroo family. The
kangar