270 



BABOON. 



though they spend a considerable portion of their 

 time upon the ground, and even find part of their 

 food there, in the young shoots or various herbace- 

 ous plants, and probably also in some of the above- 

 ground tubers which are not uncommon in the warmer 

 parts of Africa, at those seasons when the surface is 

 denuded of green vegetation by the drought. They 

 climb and leap with great ease and agility, so as 

 quickly to reconnoitre the whole of the largest tree ; 

 and though they do not swing to a branch with the 

 same graceful motion as the Oriental apes, they 

 spring into positions in the trees where one would 

 hardly expect to find them. 



This structure would lead us naturally enough to 

 consider what must be the nature of their haunts ; and 

 the character of the haunt, when once known, would 

 lead us to the structure of the animal, as the very 

 best adapted for it. The forests over which they 

 range are not masses of contiguous trees, extending 

 for many miles, without breaks, and so thick of under- 

 wood as to be nearly impenetrable by the traveller. 

 They consist, for the greater part, of single trees, or 

 of small clumps, with intervals between, which are 

 clothed with rich vegetation in the humid season, but 

 parched and burnt up in the dry. The leaping or 

 running motion is therefore, for at least half the year, 

 better adapted to the nature of the ground than walk- 

 ing would be, and the strength and agility of the 

 animals are required in their frequent ascents and 

 descents, which are of course far more fatiguing than 

 the labours of those apes which inhabit the close and 

 continuous forests of the East. 



It is probable, also, that the nature of their haunts, 

 and the severity of the labours which they are called 

 to perform in those haunts, may go far to explain, 

 upon the principles of natural necessity or usefulness, 

 those parts of the character of the baboons which, 

 when the animals are in a state of confinement, 

 appear to be merely wanton caprice and love of 

 mischief, without the least reality, or even traceable 

 indication of any thing that can be called resulting 

 good, either in supplying the wants of the creature, 

 or in any other way contributing to the preservation 

 of its existence. 



Baboons have been so universally represented as 

 among the most, if not by far the most capricious of 

 all the mammalia, as passing from the most playful 

 humour to the most violent paroxysms of rage in an 

 instant, and without any apparent cause, as being by 

 far too inconstant for being trusted, and much too able 

 and willing to do mischief for not being feared ; and 

 so well are they said to sustain the same capricious 

 and mischievous character in a state of nature, that it 

 is reported that the wild men of the African forests, 

 who hesitate not to give battle to the lion and the 

 elephant, are afraid of the baboons. It is probable 

 that there is a little exaggeration in the tale, and also 

 some superstition in its foundation. Wild men, how- 

 ever rude they may be according to our standards of 

 civilisation however ignorant they may be of our 

 arts and however inferior we may reckon their 

 weapons, always make good their title to their birth- 

 right, by subduing the most ferocious animals which 

 are found in their countries. Nothing shows more 

 clearly that the mythologic fables of the ancients are 

 mere t'oundationless freaks of fancy, than the accounts 

 of the subjugation of hydras and other formidable 

 creatures, imaginary or real, by refined heroes and 

 demi-gods. The bravest hero of modern times, 



armed according to the very perfection of warlike 

 science, would not be half so much a match for tho 

 lion, as the naked African with his rude snare, his 

 bow and his assagai. It is not, therefore, to bo 

 supposed that, without some other cause, he would be 

 afraid of the baboon, horrible as some of the accounts 

 of those animals appear to Europeans. 



Superstition may, however, assist powerfully, for 

 we have the evidence of mankind in all states, from 

 the greatest rudeness to the highest degree of civili- 

 sation, to prove that superstition can not only heighten 

 the terrors of things which are in themselves for- 

 midable or dangerous, but that it may clothe with 

 horrors of more than earthly mould subjects which, 

 in themselves,[are perfectly innocuous. There is little 

 doubt that tiie Thoth or Mercury of the ancient 

 Egyptians, which we find so often sculptured upon 

 their monumental remains, was the dog-headed 

 baboon, and not the dog that it was in fact the very 

 same species which is still to be met with in the east 

 of Africa and Arabia ; and if it had so much super- 

 stitious influence upon the people as to get into the 

 mythology of Egypt, and thence into that of Greece 

 and Rome, we can hardly suppose that it has even 

 now lost all effect upon the minds of a people who 

 are known still to be very superstitious, and who 

 have probably inhabited the very same locality from 

 ages before the civilisation of Europe to the present 

 time. These considerations may in so far diminish 

 the tale of the reputed horrors which the negroes 

 have of baboons, and that, once accomplished, may 

 lead to some diminishing of the alleged capricious 

 ferocity of the animals, which, according to the ac- 

 counts, appears to break out without any natural 

 cause. Some have carried the matter so far as to 

 say, that these animals will sometimes drop down and 

 expire in fits of capricious passion. What they may 

 do when in confinement, and subjected to the rigours 

 of hunger and flogging, which arc among the means 

 of education exercised upon animals, it is not easy to 

 say ; and it is known that the native male baboon, as 

 a free tenant of the forest in the wild, will not brook 

 restraint, but will resist it with all his might, and as 

 sturdily and perseveringly to the death, as the I test 

 bull dog will battle to his last gasp. But if it were 

 clearly established, that, in a state of nature, and, as 

 one may say, enjoying exactly that which he loves to 

 enjoy, the baboon should show either capricious 

 cruelty or ferocity, which had no reference to his own 

 protection or enjoyment, then there would be an 

 anomaly a direct contradiction something in nature 

 which was yet quite unnatural. 



It is a law of animal nature, that no animal offers 

 violence except in quest of its food, or in defence of 

 its own life or that of its species ; and as we do not 

 know all the circumstances which to animals may ap- 

 pear to justify hostilities, we should inform ourselves 

 upon that subject before we venture to accuse thorn 

 of caprice. If we, for a moment, reverse the matter, 

 and suppose a baboon, or any other creature, to look 

 at the apparent causes of human anger and strife, 

 whether on the little scale between individuals, or on 

 the great scale between nations, it is very possible 

 that it might, in the majority of instances of both, 

 conclude that we acted from caprice ; and yet, if the 

 old question, "Dost thou well to be angry?" were 

 put to us, there is no doubt that, while the fit lasted, 

 we would return the old answer, " Yea, I do well to be 

 angry, even to the death," in full conviction of its truth. 



