They chirrup briskly for food: the dam gives most, while the redbreasted cock gives one or two, and then knocks the rest away.
_24th May, 1872._--Speke at Kasenge islet inadvertently made a general statement thus: "The mothers of these savage people have infinitely less affection than many savage beasts of my acquaintance.

I have seen a mother bear, galled by frequent shots, obstinately meet her death by repeatedly returning under fire whilst endeavouring to rescue her young from the grasp of intruding men.

But here, for a simple loin-cloth or two, human mothers eagerly exchanged their little offspring, delivering them into perpetual bondage to my Beluch soldiers."-- _Speke_, pp.

234,5.
For the sake of the little story of "a bear mother," Speke made a general assertion on a very small and exceptional foundation.

Frequent inquiries among the most intelligent and far-travelled Arabs failed to find confirmation of this child-selling, except in the very rare case of a child cutting the upper front teeth before the under, and because this child is believed to be "moiko" (_unlucky_), and certain to bring death into the family.