THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 3 



you call arrows flew through the air and pierced the bodies 

 of my people. Dazed and terrified, the baboons gathered 

 around their shrieking friends and relatives. The arrows 

 were weak little things, and didn't make very serious wounds. 

 Again and again showers of these little darts sped forth. 

 In the wildest terror my people rushed for the nearest 

 krantz, but alas ! all along the route, those who were 

 wounded sank down and died in agony. Ninety-five out 

 of a troop of 189 lost their lives in that combat, and only 

 five of the enemy were killed. We learned afterwards that 

 those little darts, which our enemies shot at us with bows, 

 were tipped with deadly poison. They used to capture 

 the fierce cobra and the sullen puff adder, and extract 

 their venom. They mixed these with the juices of poison- 

 ous plants and certain insects, and smeared this death- 

 dealing poison on their arrows. 



THE PIGMIES ATTACKED US 



These pigmy men, whom you know as Bosjesmannen or 

 Bushmen, attacked us in our homes amongst the krantzes 

 and rocky hills. We pushed and hurled stones down on 

 them, and some of our strongest warriors had many hand- 

 to-hand fights. Numbers on both sides were killed. But 

 those dreadful poisoned arrows were too much for us, and 

 we were driven from our dearly-beloved and cosy caves, 

 which were then occupied by the pigmies. Often we 

 tried to surprise them asleep, but you might as well have 

 tried to catch a weasel sleeping. So we gave it up and 

 went forth into the wilderness and sought out other homes. 

 But they followed us up, and whenever we had secured a 

 nice cosy cave, we were chased out. At last we decided 

 to live away high up in the faces of the krantzes, which 

 people in England call precipices. You see, we can climb 

 almost anywhere, so we climbed up these giddy heights 

 and made our homes there. 



