of seeing the beast kill the over-matched dogs. The 

 dog had no chance at all, for the baboon remained out of 

 reach in his house on the pole as long as it chose, if the 

 dog was too big or the opening not a good one, and 

 made its rush when it would tell best. But apart 

 from this the baboon was an exceptionally big and 

 powerful one, and it is very doubtful if any dog could 

 have tackled it successfully in an open fight. The 

 creature was as clever as even they can be ; its enormous 

 jaws and teeth were quite equal to the biggest dog's, 

 and it had the advantage of four ' hands.' Its tactics 

 in a fight were quite simple and most effective : with 

 its front feet it caught the dog by the ears or neck, 

 holding the head so that there was no risk of being 

 bitten, and then gripping the body lower down with 

 the hind feet, it tore lumps out of the throat, breast, 

 and stomach pushing with all four feet and tearing 

 with the terrible teeth. The poor dogs were hopelessly 

 outmatched. 



I did not see the beginning of Jock's encounter, 

 but the boys' stories pieced together told everything. 

 It appears that when Seedling left the store he went 

 in to his own hut and remained there some little time ; 

 on coming out again he strolled over to the baboon's 

 pole about half way between the two houses and began 

 teasing it, throwing pebbles at it to see it dodge and 

 duck behind the pole, and then flicking at it with the 

 sjambok, amused by its frightened and angry protests. 

 While he was doing this, Jock, who had followed me to 

 the store, strolled out again making his way towards 

 the waggons. He was not interested in our talk ; he 

 395 



