20 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



absence of the peasants in harvest time, placing sentinels 

 on the look out, to apprise them of danger, while they visit 

 the houses and take possession of all the food they can find. 

 They are cunning and powerful, and formidable in combat, 

 but, greedy in habit, they eat to excess, and when gorged to 

 satiety fall an easy prey to their enemies. In their wild state 

 they feed on berries and bulbous roots, but when proximity 

 to civilisation gives them wider opportunity, they show their 

 appreciation of a more varied menu. Among the more 

 familiar species of the baboon are the Ckackma, the Drill, 

 the Mandrill, the Anubis, the Babouin, and the Sphinx, all of 

 which belong to the West of Africa. 



^pjjg The Arabian baboon is an animal with a 



Arabian history. It was worshipped by the Egjrptians, 



Baboon, ^jjq embalmed its body after death and set 

 apart portions of their cemeteries for its use. Sacred to 

 Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, the God of letters, the baboon 

 sometimes represents that deity in Egyptian sculptures, where 

 it is usually figured in a sitting posture, the attitude in 

 which its body was generally embalmed. The baboon was 

 also held as emblematic of the Moon, and honoured sym- 

 bolically in other connections. It is commonly represented 

 in judgment scenes of the dead with a pair of scales in 

 front of it, Thoth being supposed to exercise important 

 duties in the final judgment of men. The baboon was 

 held especially sacred at Hermopolis. According to Sir 

 J. G. Wilkinson the Egyptians trained baboons to usefiil 

 offices, making them torch-bearers at their feasts and festivals. 

 The Like others of the monkey tribes the baboon 



toutative ghows an extraordinary faculty for imitation, 

 of the Captain Browne in his " Characteristics of Ani- 



Baboou. mals " says : " The following circumstance is truly 

 characteristic of the imitative powers of the baboon: — 

 The army of Alexander the Great marched in complete battle- 

 array into a country inhabited by great nimibers of baboons. 



Digitized by Microsofi® 



