24 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



The Loyalty " An ^ cer > wishing to put the fidelity of my 

 of the baboon to the test, pretended to strike me. At 



Baboon, fafe ^ Q fl ew j n a violent rage, and, from that time, 

 could never endure the sight of the officer. If he only saw 

 him at a distance he began to cry, and make all kinds of 

 grimaces, which evidently showed that he wished to revenge 

 the insult that had been done to me; he ground his teeth; 

 and endeavoured, with all his might, to fly at his face, but 

 that was out of his power, as he was chained down. The 

 offender several' times endeavoured, in vain, to conciliate 

 him, by offering him dainties, but he remained long im- 

 placable. 



The When any eatables were pilfered, at my quar- 



f 1 ? U 8 * ers ^ ie ^ au ^ was a ^ wa 7 s taid upon Kees; and rarely 



Baboon, was the accusation unfounded. For a time the 

 eggs, which a hen laid me, were constantly stolen, and 

 I wished to ascertain whether I had to attribute this loss also 

 to him. For this purpose I went one morning to watch him, 

 and waited till the hen announced, by her cackling, that she 

 had laid an egg. Kees was sitting upon my vehicle; but, 

 the moment he heard the hen's voice, he leapt down, and 

 was running to fetch the egg. When he saw me, he suddenly 

 stopped, and affected a careless posture, swaying himself 

 backwards upon his hind legs, and assuming a very innocent 

 look ; in short, he employed all his art to deceive me with 

 respect to his design. His hypocritical manoeuvres only con- 

 firmed my suspicions, and, in order, in my turn, to deceive 

 him, I pretended not to attend to him, and turned my back 

 to the bush where the hen was cackling, upon which he 

 immediately sprang to the place. I ran after him, and came 

 up to him at the moment when he had broken the egg and 

 was swallowing it. Having caught the thief in the fact, I 

 gave him a good beating upon the spot, but this severe 

 chastisement did not prevent his soon stealing fresh-laid eggs 

 again. As I was convinced that I should never be able to 



