56 



THE MONKEYS OF THE OLD WORLD. 



members of this family amused themselves. 

 The tones of the voices of these animals, 

 says one observer, were so variously modu- 

 lated and accentuated that people were in- 

 voluntarily induced to believe themselves in 

 the presence of beings endowed with the gift 



of speech. The mode of speaking of these 

 intelligent creatures reminded one of the 

 inarticulate sounds uttered by men whose 

 speech is impeded by an organic defect in 

 the frcBiumi lingiicE. 



In fig. 1 1 a herd of geladas is represented 



Fig. II.— The Gelada (Cynoccphalus gclada). page 55 



during a period of repose. A patriarch sits 

 on a rock in the foreground, accompanied by 

 a female and two young ones at play. In 

 the background the members of the troop are 

 employed in searching for food and in playing. 

 The mode of life of all these species is 

 the same, namely, as above described. The 

 gelada and Arabian baboon are said, how- 

 ever, to live at great enmity with each other, 



and often to break out into open hostilities to 

 decide frontier disputes, on which occasions 

 the combatants occupying the higher positions 

 roll stones down upon their antagonists. 



Accounts of this rolling and throwing of 

 stones against enemies ascending from the 

 valley are met with in all the narratives of 

 hunting expeditions and other invasions of 

 their domain, just as invariably as in the 



