THE BABOONS 241 



or so, which contained some exceptionally large 

 animals. Frankly, I did not much like it. With- 

 out displaying a threatening appearance, they 

 seemed to be intent upon showing us that they 

 were not going to be hustled by us. At that 

 moment my companion uttered a loud shout, in 

 the expectation of scaring them away, but this 

 simply brought them all round facing us, barking 

 and chattering and evidently in a state of great 

 excitement. As we advanced they continued to 

 retire, stiU facing us, but at no faster pace than 

 our own, several on each side of the path, mouth- 

 ing and grimacing and evidently trying hard to 

 get us to retreat. Had we done so I think it very 

 probable that we should have been attacked, 

 and, but for our firearms, severely injured. I 

 refrained from firing upon them, however, and 

 when we gained the trees on the other side near 

 our camp they gradually edged away, but for long 

 afterwards their barks and chatterings, and that 

 singular noise they make* like a diamond traversing 

 a pane of glass, were distinctly audible. I have 

 never known baboons make a more hostile 

 demonstration . 



Of course the chacma, a considerably larger 

 creature than the common yellow baboon of 

 East Central Africa, is a large, powerful, and 

 formidable animal. Stories are on record of their 

 having attacked human beings when in large 

 numbers, and I remember, years ago, hearing one 

 in Nyasaland, which certainly bore the stamp of 

 circumstantiality, of an unfortunate European 

 who, under the influence of intoxicants, succeeded 



