KUSIMANSE - The Bandits

I was first captivated by the kusimanse, a small gregarious mongoose with a dark brown
coat and a long mobile snout. When I saw one asleep in a zoo under a pile of straw that
heaved gently and in a pattern. As this was a creature I was likely to meet on my upcoming
trip to photograph animals in their natural habitat, I felt justified in disturbing it by rattling
my thumbnail along the bars of the cage. Movement took place in the straw, and a little face
appraised me for a moment; noticing the nuts I held tentatively near the bars, the animal
expressed a faint shriek and fight back madly to release itself from its cocoon of straw. It ate
the nuts on offer and, as soon as it realised that no more treats were approaching, it gave a
long-suffering sigh and dived back into the straw.
Four months later, on my trip, I had ample prospect to get to know kusimanses properly. I
often saw them when I was sitting in camouflage in the forest waiting for animals to show
up. Then one morning a team mate brought me a basket of two baby kusimanses; they had
been found abandoned and in need of human parenting. I started teaching them to feed, by
wrapping some cotton wool round a matchstick and plummeting it in milk, so that the
babies would suck on it. On the other hand, they struggled and squeaked, and every time I
pushed the cotton wool into their mouths they frenziedly spat it out again. Did they think
that I was some kind of monster trying to choke them? I wondered if I had not got more
than I had make a deal for. Luckily, it was not long before they revealed that the cotton wool
contained milk, but then they pull on so hard that unfortunately even the cotton wool
disappeared down their throats.
For the first week they spent most of the day straggling on their bed of dried leaves in their
basket beside my bed, scrambling impatiently around inside the basket at meal times.
However, soon their front teeth appeared and, as their legs got stronger, they became more
keen to see the world that lay outside their basket, and I would put them on my bed so that
they could have a walk from one place to another. However, I called an unexpected halt to
this habit when they discovered my bare foot and decided that if they bit my toe hard
enough it might produce milk.
This was, alas, simply the first of the many troubles in store for me. Very soon the
kusimanses had become such annoyance that I named them the Bandits. They grew fast
because their desire for food seemed insatiable. As a result, their lives turned into one long
quest for food. One of the things of which they made a light snack was their basket cap.
Having wiped out this they hauled themselves out and went on a tour of inspection round
the camp. With unmistaken accuracy, they made their way to the one place where they
could do the extreme damage in the minimum time: the kitchen. They broke a dozen eggs
and rolled in the contents.
There was also a trained monkey, a somewhat vain creature called Polly, who had
befriended us. One afternoon she decided, having spent a lot of her time grooming her
lovely coat and long plume-like tail, to enjoy a midday sleep. She lay with her hands folded
neatly on her chest. Unfortunately, the Bandits appeared on the scene. When they saw
Polly’s tail lying on the ground, seemingly not belonging to anyone, they decided it must be
a tasty morsel, so they rushed forward and sank their sharp little teeth into it. Polly gave a
wild scream of shock and climbed towards the top of a tree, but the Bandits were not going
to be deprived without a struggle, and they hung on grimly. The higher Polly scrambled, the
higher she lifted the Bandits and, when finally I got there, I found them dangling by their
teeth, like some small trapeze artists, three feet off the ground
In the end, it was with a feeling of relief that, our job done, we released the Bandits back
into their natural habitat, although life without them would be noticeably less exciting.
New words: gregarious, camouflage, frenziedly and insatiable

1-Why did the pile of straw heave ‘gently and in a pattern’?

It heaved gently in a pattern because the kusimanse was sleeping underneath the pile.

2- Why did the writer feel justified in disturbing the creature?

The writer wanted to see the animal as he was visiting the zoo and he could not actually see
the kusimanse hiding under the pile.

3- Why was the animal in a hurry ‘to release itself from its cocoon of straw’?
The animal wanted to eat the nuts being offered by the writer.

4- Explain in your own words why, even before the babies were brought to him, the writer
had ‘ample opportunity’ to get to know kusimanses properly.
The writer was on an expedition working as an animal photographer in the jungle and saw
many kusimanses around him.

5- Why do you think ‘the Bandits’ was an appropriate name for the kusimanses?
Bandits was appropriate because the young kusimanses were agile and were always stealing
food.

6- a)From paragraph 3, write down one opinion. You are free to use your own words or
the words of thepassage.
The opinion is that the kusimanses might bite writer’s toe thinking of it as a source of milk.

b) From passage, write down one fact. You are free to use your own words or the words of
thepassage.
The fact is The fact is that they were getting older and wanted to leave the nest.

7- Whatdo you think were the two problems writer encountered when he fed the babies
with cotton wool dipped in milk?
 I. They were too young to suck and he worried that they might choke
II. They ate the wool also

8- Which physical development meant that the babies were able to see ‘the world that lay
outsidetheir basket’?
The babies were ready to see the world because their front teeth grew and their legs got
stronger.

9- Pick out and write down the three consecutive words which indicate the sudden way in
which the babies were prevented from seeing ‘the world that lay outside their basket’.
The words are “an abrupt halt”.
10- Explain in your own words why, according to the writer, the kusimanses ‘grew fast’.
The writer believed that their desire for food was insatiable and it was a sign of them
growing fast.

11- What evidence is there to suggest that Polly was a ‘vain creature’?
Polly was vain because she was more concerned with grooming herself all the time.

12-The Kusimanses decided that Polly’s tail was ‘a tasty morsel of something or other’.
What does this suggest about their attitude to food?
The Kusimanses were a greedy lot and never discriminated when it came to food so like evry
other thing “lying there for them to be eaten” they decided that Polly’s tail could be eaten
too.

13- Explain fully why the kusimanses were ‘three feet off the ground’.
They had bitten Polly’s tale and their teeth were sunk into her tail when she climed the tree
but the kusimanses never let go of the tail and the writer found them hanging “three feet
off the ground.”

14- Write down the meanings of the given words in column B:

A B
gregarious Extensively expressive
frenziedly hysterically
straggling sprawling
insatiable greedy
scrambled tousled
15- Find out three adjectives which is used by writer to describe Kusimanse:
I. stronger
II. insatiable
III. impatient

16- Explain how the writer felt at the end of the story?
The writer thought that his life would be less exciting now but at the same time he was relieved of
leaving the kusimanses in their natural habitat.