CREATURES OF THE WILDERNESS 149 



space to those creatures which, for purposes of 

 sport, we call Big Game, first place in any 

 account of African animals should belong by 

 right to the great manlike apes, the gorilla and 

 chimpanzee, the long-armed gibbons and dog- 

 faced baboons. These " wild men of the 

 woods " are, with the red-haired orang-outang 

 of Borneo, the most human of all the lower 

 animals. They are consequently of supreme 

 interest to every naturalist who recalls the 

 poet's injunction that "the proper study of 

 mankind is man." In one respect, indeed, the 

 apes even have the advantage. They are not 

 four-footed, but four-handed, a boon which is 

 best appreciated at moments when, with both 

 hands full, we find ourselves seriously handi- 

 capped for want of a third. Christmas shop- 

 ping may be suggested as one of the occasions 

 on which two or three more hands would be 

 welcome. The apes do not go shopping, but 

 they are able, at any rate, to move at great 

 speed in the tree-tops, swinging from bough to 

 bough with a grace and agility that must be 

 seen to be believed. 



The most familiar monkeys in South Africa 

 are the baboons, terribly destructive brutes, 

 killing sheep, goats, and poultry wholesale, 

 and damaging standing crops beyond all hope 

 of recovery. So costly are their depredations 

 that every now and then the farmers are com- 



