THE BABOONS. MAMMALIA. THE DEKRIAS. 



When thus engaged he would sit in his chair with his 

 pot of porter in one hand, and no doubt he would have 

 been as indignant as little Tony Weller, had he been 

 offered a pint instead of his customary allowance. This 

 mandrill bore the appropriate name of Happy Jerry, 

 and his reputation was so wide-spread that he was 

 actually honoured with an invitation to Windsor Castle 

 from his Majesty George IV. 



THE DEILL (Papio leucophceus) is another species 

 of short-tailed baboon very nearly allied to the man- 

 drill, and, like it, an inhabitant of the Guinea coast. It 

 is rather smaller than the preceding species ; its fur is 

 of a more greenish colour ; the sides of the muzzle are 

 less protuberant, and the skin of the face is entirely 

 black. It was originally described as a distinct species 

 by Pennant, under the name of the Wood Baboon ; but 

 little or nothing is yet known of its habits in a state 

 of nature, although in these it probably resembles the 

 mandrill. 



THE CHACMA (Cynocephalus porcarius} belongs to 

 another genus of baboons, in which the tail is of 

 moderate length. The chacma is the largest species 

 of this genus, equalling a large mastiff in size and form, 

 exceeding it in robustness and strength. It is of an 

 olive-black on the back, with the sides and belly paler ; 

 the whiskers are greyish and the face brown. It is an 

 inhabitant of the Cape of Good Hope, where it lives in 

 the mountains amongst the rocks in troops of three or 

 four hundred together. Travellers through the passes 

 of the Cape Mountains describe the noise made by the 

 baboons, when they see the loaded waggons intruding 

 upon their territory, as something terrific ; and should 

 the travellers outspan for the night in the vicinity of 

 their habitations, the yells and bowlings of the baboons 

 are kept up all night, so as effectually to scare sleep 

 from the intruders' eyelids, and make them long for the 

 first dawn of day to recommence their toilsome march. 

 Sometimes, however, it would appear that the baboons 

 take matters more quietly, sitting peaceably on the 

 summits of the rocks and gazing down upon the train 

 of waggons ; should they be within reach of the rifles 

 of the travellers they scramble away immediately, 

 climbing up the faces of nearly perpendicular rocks, by 

 the help of certain creeping plants which, in many 

 places, form a network over the rocks, and from the 

 use to which the baboons put them, are called by the 

 boors Monkeys' ladders. Their movements under such 

 circumstances are said to be indescribably amusing, 

 but they cannot always be observed in safety ; for the 

 baboons sometimes attack travellers by throwing stones 

 down upon them. 



The food of the chacma, like that of the other 

 baboons, consists partly of fruits and roots, and partly 

 of animal substances, such as insects, lizards, and the 

 eggs of birds. In search of vegetable aliments, the 

 troops often descend into the cultivated districts, where 

 they do great damage. From this circumstance, 

 coupled with their ferocity and other evil qualities, the 

 chacmas are regarded with much antipathy by the 

 Cape boors, and this feeling appears even to be shared 

 by the dogs; for we are told that there is no other 

 animal which they attack so readily, or with so much 

 determination. Such are the strength and ferocity of 



the chacma, however, that some of the dogs generally 

 pay dearly for their temerity, and the boors would 

 almost prefer setting their dogs upon a lion, to letting 

 them go in pursuit of one of these animals. Even the 

 leopard, which inhabits the same districts as this 

 powerful baboon, and feeds principally upon the females 

 and young males of the chacma, often meets with a 

 disappointment when he ventures upon an old male. 



Notwithstanding these bad qualities the young 

 chacmas are often domesticated at the Cape, when 

 they are said to show great docility, and to fulfil the 

 important office of keeping guard and giving notice of 

 the approach of a stranger as well as or better than a 

 dog. They are also trained to perform some other 

 useful duties. Sometimes a smith will be seen with a 

 chacma attending to his fire, or a peasant committing 

 the guidance of his oxen to one of these animals ; but 

 in whatever way they may be employed, they require 

 to be always under the eye of the master. They are 

 also noted for the sagacity with which they reject any 

 unwholesome food, so that a Hottentot will never touch 

 anything that has been refused by a chacma. This 

 renders it exceedingly difficult to poison them, and 

 M. Pucheran mentions a case in which one of these 

 animals actually abstained for ten days from touching 

 some poisoned food which had been prepared to kill 

 him. From the account given by M. Le Vaillant of 

 one of these baboons which was in his possession in 

 Africa, they would appear to be good-tempered, amus- 

 ing, and even affectionate ; but these good qualities in 

 all probability wear off in course of time, as the adult 

 specimens which have been kept in menageries in 

 Europe, have exhibited all the ferocity and other dis- 

 gusting qualities of their congeners. 



THE DERRIAS (Cynocephalus Hamadryad). Several 

 species of baboons are found abundantly in the north- 

 eastern part of the African continent, in Nubia, Abys- 

 sinia, and even in the mountains of Arabia. Amongst 

 these the most celebrated is the derrias, a large species, 

 standing about four feet in height when erect, which is 

 remarkable from its having the whole fore part of the 

 body, as far as the loins, covered with long shaggy hair, 

 whilst that of the hinder quarters is short ; so that the 

 creature has not unaptly been compared to a clipped 

 French poodle. In its habits the derrias closely resem- 

 bles the preceding species. 



By some writers this is considered to be the ape 

 T/toth, so commonly represented upon Egyptian monu- 

 ments, usually in a sitting posture, but variously em- 

 ployed. He was the emblem of Hermes (Thoth) the 

 inventor of letters and of the art of writing, and Hora- 

 pollon, an ancient author, relates that whenever one of 

 these baboons was brought to the temples, he was met 

 by a priest who presented him with tablets and pen and 

 ink, to ascertain whether he really belonged to the 

 family of those who understood writing.* Subsequently 

 the thoth appears to have become the symbol of the 

 supreme judge of the souls of men; and in this capacity 

 he is frequently represented with a pair of scales, in 

 which the good and bad actions of those before him 



* This may remind our readers of the story in the "Thou- 

 sand and One Nights," in which a prince, metamorphosed into 

 an ape, discovers his human quality by writing. 



