THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 65 



The soldiers, thinking the Boers were silently creeping 

 down upon them, opened fire and blazed away at the 

 rocks for hours. We hadn't reckoned on stirring up such 

 a row. We were more terrified than those Rooi-neks who 

 thought their last hour had come. The ping of the bullets 

 on the rocks, and the dull thud of others in the earth, 

 and the singing noise they made over our heads, as well 

 as the flashes of fire from the guns, appalled us. We were 

 benumbed with fear. We dared not move, for we had sense 

 enough to know that when a gun went off something hard 

 flew through the air, and if we happened to be in a line 

 with it we might get hurt or killed. We had learned all 

 that by bitter experience from the Boer farmers. 



It seems there was an old Hottentot mule driver in the 

 soldiers' camp. He sought out the officer in charge and 

 said, " Baas, don't be angry with me for speaking, but those 

 are not Boers around us. They are baboons. If you don't 

 believe me, I am willing to go out with a gun and drive 

 them off. When they see me they will perhaps want to 

 attack me, but when I shoot they will all rush off in terror. 

 They are dreadfully afraid of a man with a gun." 



The Hottentot was allowed to go. Our eyes are very 

 keen and we saw him coming, and silently crept away, for 

 the soldiers had ceased firing. How thankful we were when 

 we had reached the foot of that mountain. We scared 

 those soldierfolk, but we got scared just as badly ourselves. 

 Three of our folk were wounded by the bullets, but they 

 were only flesh wounds which healed very quickly. 



WE PUNISHED HIM SEVERELY 



I am a baboon boy, and my age is two years and five 

 months next July. I was captured when I was a year and 

 a half old. We were out in the veld digging up bulbs, 

 and were cut off from our mountain home by three menfolk 



E 



