262 AFRICAN GAME TRAILS 



the tree tops. They are hideous creatures. They ravage 

 the crops and tear open new-born lambs to get at the milk 

 inside them; and where the natives are timid and unable 

 to harm them, they become wantonly savage and aggres- 

 sive and attack and even kill women and children. In 

 Uganda, Cuninghame had once been asked by a native 

 chief to come to his village and shoot the baboons, as they 

 had just killed two women, badly bitten several children, 

 and caused such a reign of terror that the village would be 

 abandoned if they were not killed or intimidated. He him- 

 self saw the torn and mutilated bodies of the dead women; 

 and he stayed in the village a week, shooting so many ba- 

 boons that the remainder were thoroughly cowed. Baboons 

 and boars are the most formidable of all foes to the dogs 

 that hunt them just as leopards are of all wild animals 

 those most apt to prey on dogs. A baboon's teeth and 

 hands are far more formidable weapons than those of any 

 dog, and only a very few wholly exceptional dogs of huge 

 size, and great courage and intelligence, can, single-handed, 

 contend with an old male. But we saw a settler whose three 

 big terriers could themselves kill a full-grown wart-hog boar; 

 an almost unheard-of feat. They backed up one another 

 with equal courage and adroitness, their aim being for 

 two to seize the hind legs; then the third, watching his 

 chance, would get one foreleg, when the boar was speedily 

 thrown, and, when weakened, killed by bites in his stomach. 

 Hitherto we had not obtained a bull hippo, and I made 

 up my mind to devote myself to getting one, as otherwise 

 the group for the museum would be incomplete. Save in 

 exceptional cases I do not think hippo hunting, after the 

 first one has been obtained, a very attractive sport, because 

 usually one has to wait an hour before it is possible to tell 

 whether or not a shot has been successful, and also be- 

 cause, a portion of the head being all that is usually visible, 

 it is exceedingly difficult to say whether the animal seen 

 is a bull or a cow. As the time allowed for a shot is very 

 short, and any hesitation probably insures the animal's 



