THE BABOON. 66 



the kites. The cover was again taken off the pot, and the shrieking and struggling prisoner 

 thrust in to the boiling water in spite of its beak and claws. The lid was then replaced, and 

 the baboon resumed its post of sentry with the placid ease that belongs to a conscience void of 

 offence. 



The baboons, when in their native fastnesses, are under a very complete system of disci- 

 pline, and enforce its code upon each other most strictly. Considering the daring inroads 

 which these creatures constantly make upon their neighbors' property, and the daily dangers 



BABOONS.— Cynocephalus babuin. 



to which all gregarious animals are necessarily subject, the most wary vigilance and the most 

 implicit obedience are necessary for the safety of the whole community. 



The acknowledged chiefs of the association are easily recognized by the heavy mass of 

 hair that falls over their shoulders, and which, when thick and gray with age, is a natural 

 uniform that cannot be wrongly assumed or mistaken. 



These leaders have a mode of communicating their orders to their subordinates, and they 

 again to those placed under them, in a curiously-varied language of intonations. Short and 

 sharp barks, prolonged howls, sudden screams, quick jabberings, and even gestures of limbs 

 and person, are all used with singular rapidity, and repeated from one to the other. There 

 was a system of military telegraphing, by means of attitudes and sounds, which was invented 

 some time ago, and which really might have been copied from the baboons, so much do their 

 natural tactics resemble the artificial inventions of mankind. 



It must be remembered that, clever as are these animals, their ingenuity is quite equalled, 

 and even surpassed, by many of the animal kingdom which are placed much lower in its 

 system. Therefore, although these examples of their sagacity are thus placed on record, it is 



