222 KEES THE BABOON 



low branches of a tree, he was seen by a leopard, who 

 happened to be wanting a dinner, and after creeping 

 stealthily up, with one bound he landed on the baboon's 

 neck, and there was an end of him. 



The Narnaquas used to complain that it was difficult 

 to keep a child, for the baboons were sure to steal it, 

 perhaps in revenge for some teasing on the part of the 

 children. 



One evening, some little Narnaquas were sent out with 

 bows and arrows to play in the woods just outside the 

 village. When it grew dark they all came home again, 

 and it was not until they were close to the huts that they 

 missed the youngest of the party, a boy of five or six, who, 

 being very tired, had lingered behind the rest. Seeing he 

 was alone, a crowd of chattering baboons came swiftly 

 down from their perches in the trees, and seizing the boy 

 in their long arms, carried him off to the mountains. 



Next day the whole village turned out as soon as it 

 was light in search of the child, but neither boy nor 

 baboons could be seen anywhere. 



For a whole year the parents gave up the boy for lost, 

 when one night a man from another tribe came riding 

 through the village, and mentioned, during the course 

 of conversation, that a long way off he had noticed the 

 trail of baboons, and in the midst the footprints of a child. 

 The villagers set out directly on hearing this news, and 

 when they reached the place described by the hunter, 

 they saw the little boy seated on a high rock, with a big 

 baboon beside him. At the sight of the men the baboon 

 caught up the boy and tried to make off with him, but 

 after a hard chase he was at length surrounded, and forced 

 to give up the child. Far from being pleased at his 

 release from captivity, the boy, who had become quite 

 wild, fought and cried, and even tried to get back to his 

 long-armed friends. He had forgotten, too, how to talk, 

 and it took him some time to pick up his own language 

 again. When at last he had settled down to his old life, 



