74 THE MANDRILL. 
front of the main body, and run from side to side, for the purpose of reconnoitering the 
ground over which they will have to pass. The females and their young occupy the 
centre, while the rear is brought up by the old and experienced males. 
Thus, the more active and vigilant animals lead the way, the weakest are kept under 
protection, and the powerful elders have the whole of their charge constantly in view. In 
order to ensure the utmost precision in the hne of march, several trusty animals are 
selected as “ whippers in,” whose business it is to keep order, to drive stragglers back to 
their proper position, to moderate the exuberant playfulness of the advanced guard, to 
keep a watchful eye upon the weaker members of the community, and to maintain a 
correspondence with the venerable chiefs in the rear. 
The number of individuals composing a troop is sometimes above one hundred, ten or 
twelve being adult males, twenty or so, adult females, and the rest of the band composed 
of the young of both sexes. 
The specimens of baboons that have been captured and domesticated, are generally 
taken by a crafty stratagem. Jars of well-sweetened beer are placed near their haunts, 
and drugged with some of those somniferous herbs which are so well known to the 
Orientals. 
The baboons, seeing the jars left apparently unwatched, come cautiously from their 
homes, and assemble round the novel articles with much erin and chatter. They first dip 
in a cautious finger, and taste suspiciously. Misgiving gives place to confidence, and 
they partake freely of the sweet treachery. The sporific liquid soon manifests its power, 
and the baboons fall easy victims to their captors. 
The two animals with which this history of baboons is closed, are removed from the 
preceding species, on account of various points in their conformation, and are placed in a 
separate genus, under the name of Papio. 
Few animals present a more grotesque mixture of fantastic embellishment and 
repulsive ferocity than the baboon which is known under the name of MANDRILL. 
The colours of the rainbow are emblazoned on the creature’s form, but always in the 
very spots where one would least expect to see them. A bright azure glows, not in its 
“eyes of heavenly blue,” but on each side of its nose, where the snout is widely 
expanded, and swollen into two enormous masses. The surfaces of these curious and 
very unprepossessing projections are deeply grooved, and the ridges are bedizened with 
the cerulean tint above mentioned. Lines of brilliant scarlet and deep purple alternate 
with the blue, and the extremity of the muzzle blazes with a fiery red like Bardolph’s 
nose. 
That all things should be equally balanced, the opposite end of the body is also radiant 
with chromatic effect, being plenteously charged with a ruddy violet, that is permitted to 
give its full effect, by the pert, upright carriage of the tail. 
The general colour of the fur is of an olive brown tint, fading into grey on the under 
side of the limbs, and the chin is decorated with a small yellow pointed beard. The 
muzzle is remarkable for a kind of rim or border, which is not unlike the corresponding 
part in a hog, and is well shown in the engraving. The ears are small, devoid of fur, 
and of a black colour with a tinge of blue. 
As in the Diana, the colours of this animal are more of a character that we look for 
in the plumage of birds, than in one of the mammals. These bright tints do not, however, 
belong to the hair, but only are developed in the skin, fading away after death, and turning 
into a dingy black. The same circumstance is found to take place in many other 
animals, the skin colours being very fugitive. 
So dependent are these tints upon the life of the animal, that unless it be in perfect 
health and strength, the bright colours dim their beauty, and form, by their brilliancy or 
faintness, a tolerable test of the state of the creature’s health. 
The curious cheek expansions are due, not to the muscles of the face, but to the very 
bones themselves, which are heavy, protuberant, and ridged in the bone skull as in the 
living head. This addition to the usual form of the skull, adds greatly to the brutish 
appearance of the animal, and gives it a less intelligent aspect than that which is seen in 
most of the monkey tribe. 
