THE TRUE BABOONS 133 



stones to look for insects and such food underneath. It is striking thus to see 

 monkeys roaming about on open moorland, where there are no trees. 



' ' The track of the baboons on the sand is unmistakable. The foot makes a 

 mark where the animal has been galloping, just like that of a child's foot ; the fore- 

 limb makes a mark not half so deeply indented, the hand being used merely to 

 touch on, as it were, to prepare a fresh spring with the feet. I found the skeleton 

 of one of the baboons in a cave at Cape Point. The animal had evidently crawled 

 into the cave to die." 



Mrs. A. Martin, in Home Life on an Ostrich Farm, also gives an excellent 

 description of the habits of the chacma in the Cape district, from which the follow- 

 ing extracts are taken: "On mountain excursions," writes this lady, "you fre- 

 quently hear his surly bark, and sometimes see him looking out defiantly at you 

 from behind a rock or bush, where possibly you have disturbed him in the midst of 

 an exciting lizard hunt, or careful investigation of loose stones in search of the 

 centipedes, scorpions, and beetles hidden beneath. These creatures, uninviting 

 though they appear to us, are among his favorite dainties, and he catches them with 

 wonderful dexterity. In the silence of night his voice is so distinctly audible from 

 the homestead that you would imagine him to be close by, though in reality he is 

 far off in one of the kloofs of the mountains. One night, as we strolled up and down 

 near the house, enjoying the bright moonlight, a loud chorus of distant baboons, to 

 which we were listening, was suddenly interrupted, evidently by the spring of a 

 hungry leopard, the moment's silence being followed by the agonized and prolonged 

 yells of the victim. . . . No vegetable poison has the slightest effect on the 

 baboon's iron constitution ; and, indeed, if there exists any poison at all capable of 

 killing him, it is quite certain that, with his superior intelligence, he would be far 

 too artful to take it ; and when the fiat for his destruction has gone forth, a well- 

 organized attack has to be made on him with dogs and guns. He can show fight, 

 too, and the dogs must be well trained and have the safety of numbers to enable 

 them to face him ; for in fighting he has the immense advantage of hands, with 

 which he seizes a dog and holds him fast, while he inflicts a fatal bite through the 

 loins. Indeed, for either dog or man, coming to close quarters with Adonis [as the 

 chacma is ironically called by the Boers] is no trifling matter. One of our friends 

 traveling on horseback, came upon a number of baboons sitting in solemn parlia- 

 ment on some rocks. He cantered towards them, anticipating seeing the ungainly 

 beasts take to their heels in grotesque panic ; but was somewhat taken aback on 

 finding that, far from being intimidated by his approach, they refused to move, and 

 sat waiting for him, regarding him the while with ominous calmness. The canter 

 subsided into a trot, and the trot into a sedate walk, and still they sat there ; and 

 so defiant was the expression on each ugly face that at last the intruder thought it 

 wisest to turn back and ride ignominiously away." 



The most general food of the chacma is afforded by the bulbous roots of an 

 iris-like plant, known as ixia, of which there are several South African varieties, 

 one of which is specially known as the baboon's ixia. These bulbs the chacmas 

 dig up with their strong hands, and carefully peel before eating. Other kinds of 

 bulbous and tuberous roots are also eaten by these animals ; while buds and young 



