46 



THE APES AND MOXKEYS. 



her chain would permit. But she did not surfer us 

 to practice this joke many times. After awhile she 

 was shrewd enough to take the burning tinder and 

 extinguish it with her hands before it had reached 

 the powder, after which she made a meal of the 

 whole. 



Her affection for me was boundless. I could ill- 

 treat her and still she would show no resentment. 

 It seemed that she considered me perfectly innocent 

 of all the evil that befell her. When I had to chas- 

 tise her, she never flew into a rage at me, but di- 

 rected her wrath against the other people present, 

 thinking, no doubt, that they were the cause of her 

 punishment. She preferred me to all her friends, 

 and at my approach would turn against those whom 

 she had just been caressing. 



She felt flattered at kind words, while laughter 

 was revolting to her, especially when she thought 

 she herself had provoked it. She responded to 

 every call, and I could take her out on long walks 

 without a chain. She followed me like a Dog, 

 though she was fond of making little trips first to 

 one side and then the other, extending them as far 

 as she pleased, but never going very far from me. 

 The Hamadryas The Baboon which in virtue of his 

 or Sacred shape, of his great sense, and also, 

 Baboon. perhaps, of his unlovely character, 

 played such a prominent part with the ancient 

 Egyptians, is called the Hamadryas or Sacred Bab- 

 oon (Cynocephalus hamadryas). How he came by 

 the honor of bearing the name of a Greek nymph 

 is a mystery to me, for surely his bearing shows 

 nothing' that is womanly. The ancients certainly 

 did not bestow this name on him. Herodotus, Plu- 

 tarch and Pliny call him Cynocephalus, Strabonius 

 calls him Cebus, Juvenal gives him the name of 

 Cercopithecus, Agatharchides that of Sphinx. The 

 modern Abyssinians term him Hebe, the Arabians 

 style him Robah, and in Egypt he is known as 

 Khird. Among all these names there is not one 

 that would recall a nymph, unless it be "Sphinx." 

 The Hamadryas The reverence accorded to the Ha- 

 Keverenced in madryas by the ancient Egyptians 

 Ancient Egypt. nas been depicted by Dumichen. 

 In all Egyptian antiquities and remains, this Baboon 

 appears as chief of the Monkey tribe. Hieroglyphs 

 often represent Monkeys, but the adult male of the 

 Hamadryas is the only one that is shown sitting on 

 an altar, adored by men. In some pictures he is 

 shown as a judge of the good and bad actions of 

 mankind ; he is holding a pair of trembling scales 

 and attentively looking at them. The deity which 

 he represented occupies a very prominent place in 

 all the pictures. Probably the deification of the 

 Hamadryas had the same origin as that of the 

 Crocodile, namely — fear ; for even then there were 

 people who feared their god, rather than loved him. 

 It is remarkable that the Egyptians were not the 

 only ones to revere this Monkey. All the inhabit- 

 ants of the steppes of Central Africa, as well as a 

 great many Abyssinians, wear their hair combed and 

 parted like the Hamadryas, and if they did not take 

 the fashion from him, they did from statues of him. 

 The Hamadryas is no longer held in particular 

 esteem throughout those countries. The damage 

 he does is too great to allow of any friendship be- 

 tween him and Man. In P'gypt he is no longer 

 found in a wild state. I did not meet the Hama- 

 dryas wild on my first African tour, but later I fre- 

 quently saw him during my short stay in Abyssinia, 

 and can speak about him from personal experience. 



Home and The Hamadryas inhabits the whole 

 Characteristics of coast of Abyssinia and of southern 

 the Hamadryas. Nubia. The greater the abundance 

 of plants in the mountains, the more he seems to 

 appreciate the locality. The vicinity of water is a 

 condition essential to the welfare of a troop of 

 these Baboons. Sometimes a few troops descend 

 from the higher mountains to the lower hills of 

 Samchara or the strip of desert on the coast, but 

 the great mass always stays in the high mountains. 

 Every troop has its own territory, one and one-half 

 to two miles in diameter. Small troops are more 

 rarely met with than large ones. Once only did 

 I see a troop of from fifteen to twenty ; at all other 

 times they were in flocks numbering at least one 

 hundred and fifty head, and among them were ten 

 to fifteen adult males (real monsters of large size 

 and possessing teeth superior to those of the Leop- 

 ard, both in point of strength and length I; double 

 this number were adult females. The remainder were 

 young and half-grown animals of both sexes. Old 

 males are distinguished by their huge size and a long, 

 cape-like mane. The hair of the mane of a middle- 

 aged male that I killed measured eleven inches. 

 The females have shorter hair and are of a darker 

 brown color. The young animals resemble the 

 mother. Every individual hair of the body is alter- 

 nately greenish brown and yellow in tint, a blend- 

 ing of colors resulting which is hard to describe, 

 but looks very much like dried grass. The sides of 

 the head and the hinder limbs are always lighter, 

 usually merging into ash-gray. The callosities are 

 flaming red and the face devoid of hair and of a 

 dirty flesh color. The older a male gets, the lighter 

 is his mane. In my opinion there are two species 

 of this Baboon ; the smaller kind, inhabiting Asia, 

 provided with a gray mane, and the larger, found 

 in Africa, whose mane remains a greenish blue gray, 

 even in old age. The length of the adult male is 

 about three feet, estimating the tufted tail to be 

 eight or ten inches. 



In the early morning hours, or when it is raining, 

 one can find an entire troop in its sleeping places, 

 which, in fact, are only holes of a larger or smaller 

 size in inaccessible recesses of rocky walls. They 

 are huddled together, the younger and smaller ones 

 creeping close to their mothers and sometimes also 

 their fathers. In favorable weather the troop leaves 

 these rocks during the forenoon, and roams slowly 

 about pulling out plants, whose roots seem to form 

 their principal food, and rolling every stone from its 

 place, to get at the insects, Worms and Snails that 

 are hidden beneath, and that are esteemed special 

 dainties. As soon as breakfast is over, they all re- 

 turn to the crest of the mountain. The males then 

 sit on stones, grave and dignified, their backs turned 

 to the wind ; while the females look after the play- 

 ing and romping young ones. Late in the afternoon 

 the troop goes to the nearest river or lake to drink. 

 After this they look out for another meal, and then 

 retire to a suitable place for the night. If the lo- 

 cality is especially favorable, one can count on see- 

 ing the Baboons return to it every evening, if they 

 are not disturbed in any way. Fields of durra in 

 the vicinity of their abodes are counted as special 

 attractions by them, and have to be carefully guarded 

 if the owners expect a harvest ; else the impudent 

 robbers would go day after day, devastate a great 

 deal more than they could consume, and finally ruin 

 the entire field. 



