Most homes are quite cramped and badly lit inside so this encourages us to seek out the early evening breeze out on the street where there is more space and more light. This is the only opportunity to shake off the exhaustion of the daytime and a time when one can feel free to relax. But they just move on somewhere else and carry on their laughing and playing, noisily arguing, never tiring of devising endless games. The children of our neighbourhood are quite familiar with mongooses but all the same it could be nasty if they trod on one in the dark. Even though mongooses don't usually attack people they will react violently to being touched, biting back if they are hurt them.
People say mongoose bites are hard to heal.
Only last year a child who had been bitten by a one died before reaching the hospital. They are heedless and quickly forget things that have happened to them. Almost all the kids from our neighbourhood, including my two, are little devils. They decide for themselves that their homework needn't be done properly and they just fool around getting up to whatever mischief beckons. We parents, at our wits' end, have given up trying to do anything about it.