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When I make afternoon tea I make an extra portion for the gibbons. People here say that the tannin in tea supplies some element the leaf-eating monkeys ordinarily get in their food suuplies in the wild, but not in captivity. However, they will only drink it if there is plenty of sugar in it.  Gibbons have a curious habit of drinking: instead of putting their nose into the pan, they lift what liquid they can in one cupped hand and drink out of that. Our two are very fond of Davis and Jennier, love to hang around their neck, but are still suspicious of Bill and me and won't come to us.
  
Harry and the larger gibbon are great pals, rolling over and over together in play. Harry also likes little Mr. Milquetoast, but I don't think the feeling is really reciprocated. Mr. M. endures the tiger's caresses, but is pretty much afraid of him. Mrs. Coenraad got some remarkable photographs of the gibbon and tiger together: they should win a prize in any Picture-of-your-pet show. 

[[strikethrough]] May 22 [[/strikethrough]] There was a heavy rainstorm in the evening, and both the boys insisted on going out in all the rain and making sure that none of their charges were getting wet. They were worried about all the specimens that we had put in outdoor padlocks, who perhaps would not be familiar enough with their new homes to get under the shelters provided.

May 22 -

Everything seemed to get through the night well, and be none the worse for the storm.
 
Yesterday one of the gardeners working around the place brought in a very small snake in a bottle, and wanted to exchange it for a cigarette. Bill thought that a very modest price to set on his specimen, and gave him four cigarettes, which delighted him.  This morning he turned up with a black cobra which he had captured in the back of our house. I suggested that probably he would want a cigar, but Bill paid him in money, and listened entranced to the lurid account he gave of the capture. The story was told in Malay, but accompanied with unmistakable pantomime. Anybody who catches a cobra alive has plenty of courage, and I am glad that this one is no longer wandering about in our back yard.

May 23 -

No exciting acquisitions today, but there is always plenty of amusement watching the babies perform in the back yard. The friendly gibbon (named by Davis Roemah Sakit!) spent the morning trying to pick fleas off Harry, and in afternoon played with the Himalayan bear cubs. The bears are ready to fight anyone else, but they were a little awed by Roemah Sakit, who could of course leap out of their way if they got to rough.

To-day is visitors' day, somewhat to our annoyance. The natives think that this is a free zoo, and so hence so ewhat better than the Siantar Zoo, where the admission charge is 5 cents. They wander in and out of the back yard, often going though our bedrooms to get there. Somebody picked up a tin of cigarettes and 20 cents on his way in or out. we must get more locks on the doors, and more signs "Dilarang Masoek" (No entrance).