124 THE MONKEYFOLK OF SOUTH AFRICA 



in my friend the Chacma baboon and myself, but all the 

 same both he and I are Guenon monkeys, because we both 

 possess cheek pouches, simple stomachs, &c. 



MONKEYFOLK AND HUMANFOLK 



We Guenon monkeys have got sense — ^yes, and lots of 

 it too. You think because dogs and horses and other lower 

 animalfolk can be trained to do different kinds of tricks and 

 other things that they are very brainy. Yes, they are clever 

 enough in their way, but you are able to train them in the 

 way you do because they are what you call docile creatures. 

 We monkeyfolk have very intelligent brains, but we are not 

 so docile as dogs and horses, although when we are treated 

 kindly we allow ourselves, sometimes, to be trained to do 

 things which quite astonish the humanfolk. The human- 

 folk family, we admit, are the most intelligent creatures 

 on the earth, and we monkeyfolk come next. There is 

 just as much variety of intelligence amongst the different 

 kinds of monkeys as there is with you humanfolk. 



We Guenon monkeyfolk live now very much like the 

 humanfolk of the Stone Age lived long ages ago. They 

 lived in tribes or clans, and so do we. Each tribe or clan 

 kept quite separate and had each their hunting-grounds. 

 If another tribe trespassed, then there was a row, and the 

 two would fight. , Sometimes when a tribe would find theij: 

 hunting-ground too small for their needs, they attacked 

 another tribe, and if they were victorious they annexed 

 the hunting-grounds of those they defeated, and added them 

 to their own. Now we Guenon monkeyfolk do just the 

 same. We associate in big families of perhaps a hundred 

 or more under the chieftainship of the strongest warrior 

 of the tribe. We guard our frontiers jealously, and at 

 once attack any other monkeyfolk clan that may trespass. 

 The tribe I belong to is a powerful one. We were not 



