BABOONS. 127 



In ilisposition all the baboons are the reverse of amiable, and they are 

 accustomed to fly into paroxysms of fur\- at any object which enrages or excites 

 them ; but some of the species are capable of being moi'e or less completely tamed, 

 and even learning a certain number of tricks; and it appears that members of 

 one species were habitually tamed by the ancient Egj^tians. 



We shall have occasion again to refer to the early period at which baboons 

 must have been known to the Egj^tians, and we have already mentioned that they 

 take their scientific name from their ancient Greek title. To show that they were 

 known in Europe at least two centuries ago, we extract an account which, though 

 often quoted, is so interesting and so quaint that it will bear another repetition. 

 This work is by one Ludolph, and relates to the ancient Ethiopia, the modem 

 Abyssinia : the English translation being published in the year 1684. "Of apes," 

 writes Ludolph, " there are infinite flocks up and down in the mountains, a thousand 

 and more together ; there they leave no stone unturned. If they meet with one 

 that two or three cannot lift, they call for more aid, and all for the sake of the 

 wormes that lye under ; a sort of diet which they relish exceedinglj'. They are 

 verj^ greeily after emmets. So that having found an emiuet-hill, they presently 

 surround it. and, laying their fore-paws with the hollow downward upon the ant- 

 heap, as fast as the emmets creep into their treacherous j)aliHS, they lick 'em oft" 

 with great comfort to their stomachs ; and there they will lie till there is not an 

 emmet left. Thej' are also pernicious to fruit and apples, and will destroy whole 

 fields and gardens unless thej- be carefully look'd after. For they are very cunning, 

 and will never venture in till the return of their spies, which they send always 

 before ; who gi^^ng information that all things are safe, in they rush with their 

 whole body, and make a quick dispatch. Therefore they go very quiet and silent to 

 their prey : and if their young chance to make a noise, they chastise them with 

 their fists : but if they find the coast cleai', then eveiy one hath a difterent noise to 

 express his joy. Nor could there be any to hinder them from further multiplying, 

 })ut that they fall sometimes into the ruder hands of the wild beasts, which they 

 have no way to avoid but by a timely flight, or bj' creeping into the clefts of the 

 rocks. If they find no safety in flight, they make a virtue of necessity, stand their 

 ground, ami. filling their paws full of dust or sand, fling it into the eyes of their 

 assailant, and then to their heels again." 



Although Ludolph maj- have mixed up some other monkej's with them, there 

 can be little doubt but that in the main this marvellous account refers to the 

 Arabian baboon, which is still so common in Abyssinia. This identification is 

 strongly supported by his mention of the large number of individuals in a troop, 

 by the reference to rocks, by the search after insects, and also by the allusion to 

 encounters with leopards. It must, however, be confessed that the figures of 

 monkej-s with which Ludolph's narrative is illustrated, bear but little resem- 

 blance to baboons, although this may well be explained by the degree of licence 

 which the engravers of his epoch seem to have allowed themselves in such 

 matters. 



We now proceed to notice in detail the better known of the various species 

 of baboons, commencing with the more tj-pical ones with comparatively long 

 tails, and concluding: with the others, like the drill and mandrill, in which these 



