THE CAPE BABOON OR BAVIAN 



He was carefully watching my movements. I 

 shouted several times, but the baboons paid no 

 heed, evidently thinking they had not been observed. 

 Indeed, without the aid of powerful field-glasses, 

 it would have been quite impossible to have detected 

 a single one of them, so closely did the colour of 

 their fur blend with that of the rocks. I retired 

 to a neighbouring clump of scrub, and hid ; but 

 although I lay low for a full hour, not a baboon 

 stirred. They were awaiting the signal from their 

 leader, who evidently knew perfectly well that I 

 was in hiding, and perhaps with evil intent. 



A troop of baboons numbering about 200 

 of all sizes, from babies in arms to great shaggy- 

 maned males, lived in the crannies and cracks in 

 the perpendicular sides of Table Mountain, near 

 Pietermaritzburg, in Natal. This troop was a pest 

 to the Kafirs living in the vicinity, owing to their 

 frequent raids on the mealie and amabele fields. 

 The natives were in despair, for these sub-human 

 cousins of ours are not easily caught napping. 



While a raid on a mealie garden is being carried 

 out, one or more of the troop, as circumstances re- 

 quire, take up a suitable position on a projection of 

 rock, on the top of a pile of boulders, on one of the 

 upper branches of a tall tree, or whatever suit- 

 able spot the neighbourhood affords. Should the 

 sentry see or hear anything suspicious, he gives a 

 loud cry of alarm, whereupon the troop instantly 

 rush for their retreat, which in the case of this 

 3 1 



