BABOONS AND LEMURS 155 



which, having attacked a troop single-handed, was 

 literally torn to pieces by a combination of three or four 

 old males. He had evidently, following his natural 

 instinct, held fast to the one which was found lying 

 dead beside him, while its companions attacked him 

 from behind. 



The full-grown male Chacma being a most powerful, 

 fierce, and plucky beast, which fights desperately in 

 defence of its females and young, it is perhaps inevitable 

 that its aggressive qualities should be sometimes ex- 

 aggerated. Native tradition and " hunters' yarns " 

 have, therefore, no doubt been responsible for many 

 accounts of unprovoked ferocity towards human beings. 

 Nevertheless there is no reason to doubt that, especially 

 where they have not learned to dread firearms, they 

 might be capable of combining with effect against an 

 unarmed native who attempted to interfere with one 

 of them. Again, during their forays on native gardens, 

 it is quite conceivable that a number of half-hearted 

 attempts to drive them away, on the part of women and 

 children, followed by precipitate flight, might ultimately 

 induce pursuit and vengeance. The freakishness of all 

 wild animals is proverbial. Still, I think the attendant 

 circumstances must be in some way exceptional, and in 

 the countries in which I have lived and travelled I have 

 never actually come across an instance of the kind. In 

 general practice, baboons, no less than other wild things, 

 habitually give way before man, and, not being flesh 

 eaters, they have seldom any natural inducement to 

 make attacks upon other mammals. An exception is 

 the habit which they have acquired, since the opening 

 up of some parts of South Africa, of attacking the young 

 lambs of domestic sheep, in order to obtain the milk 

 from the stomachs. 



