BABOONS AND LEMURS 151 



evidently on the look-out for danger. Behind these 

 walks or squats a confused crowd of females and of 

 young animals, the ladies employed in various family 

 tasks, while the boys and girls, playing and squabbling, 

 chase each other around, to a shrill accompaniment of 

 chattering screams. Possibly two of the youngsters, in 

 the course of a rough and tumble, jostle against one of 

 the senior males. Immediately the latter's attitude of 

 dignified quiet vanishes, and he turns with a roar upon 

 the imprudent juveniles, who retreat hastily with shrieks 

 of pain and fear. Now and then a mother finds it neces- 

 sary to chastise her offspring, or to wreak vengeance 

 upon one or other of the unattached hobbledehoys who, 

 she guesses, meditates imposing upon or injuring it. 

 The air resounds with squeaks, shrill cries, and occasional 

 bass grunts. 



Suddenly from one of the guards comes a single deep, 

 hoarse bark, and instantly there is silence : the females 

 catch up their young offspring ; the rest of the band, 

 by one accord, scuttle out right and left, and in a moment 

 nothing remains to indicate their former presence but 

 one or two of the largest males, who walk quietly off, 

 now and then stopping to glance back and to utter their 

 resonant warning barks. If you run quickly forward, 

 and climb to a coign of vantage, you will perhaps be in 

 time to see the whole band scampering off, the infants 

 clinging to their mothers' bodies, the unattached juveniles 

 racing ahead, and the three or four fathers of families 

 bringing up the rear at a more deliberate pace. 



The cunning of the baboon has, however, apparently 

 limits, as the occasional success of one of the methods 

 in vogue for catching them alive proves. The mode of 

 operation is to put a few mealies, or some other delicacy, 

 inside an ordinary gourd, leaving an aperture only just 



