THE GELADAS, 
143 
very adroitly popped the fruit into his cheek-pouches, had moved off a few yards, when a boy in the 
crowd round him pulled him sharply by the tail. Conscience-stricken, he fancied that it had been 
done in revenge by the date-seller whom he had robbed; and so, passing close by the true offender and 
behind the legs of two or three others, he fell on the unfortunate fruiterer, and would no doubt have 
bitten him severely, hut for the interference of his master, who came to the rescue.” 
Although so clever, the Kamadryas is much more deficient in brain than the higher Apes, the 
Orang for instance. It is not so much developed in front, and the whole mass is not so high, but still 
it projects well over the little brain, or cerebellum. The convolutions are simpler, and although all the 
principal markings noticed even in man are present, still the smaller ones, and those which belong 
to structures which add to the superficial extent of the organ, are wanting. The ventricles and the 
posterior horn and its eminences are present, as is also that particularly monkey development, the 
fissure, which is called the external perpendicular. 
Evidently the compressed form of the skull, which seems as if it had been pressed far above over 
the forehead, has much to do with the small bulk of the front of the brain, and this is also diminished 
by the projection of the orbits into the brain case. The skull is certainly an ugly thing to look at, 
and is only surpassed by that of the lull-grown Mandrill in want of elegance, of outline, and smooth 
configuration. The forehead and top of the skull are broad and flat, and the whole brain case appears 
to slope off at the sides of the orbits, and then projects but little there, the broadest part of the skull 
being at the cheek-bone. The orbits are oblique, that is to say, they look forwards and outwards, 
and they are tolerably widely open. There is a great roundness and swelling of the upper jaw-bone 
from the cheek-bone to the long nasal bones, and the front jaw-bone (the pre-maxi llary) is short and 
projecting. The shape of the skull resembles that of the Sphinx Baboon. 
Their name, given to them by the naturalist, is as great a puzzle as are many others devoted to 
animals, for what possible connection can there be between the Hamadryads, the nymphs whose birth, 
life, and death were mysteriously united with the corresponding epochs in the growth of the oak-tree, 
and a most un-nymplilike creature which likes rocks, holes, and dens, but who neither cares for oaks 
nor acorns ] 
THE GELADA BABOON* 
These Baboons are quite as clever as the great Dog-faced kind, which has been immortalised by the 
ancient Egyptians, and every now and then troops of both come in contact and have great fights. The 
Gel ad a Baboon, with its long tail tufted at the end, and black limbs, has very long hair on its upper 
parts of a pale brown colour. This covers the head where there is a dark line from the forehead back- 
wards, and also the shoulders and rump. This Baboon, moreover, has the nostrils opening high up in the 
face, and not close to the end of the upper jaw, as in the Hamadryas. Differing thus from the Ham&dryas 
Baboons, each troop soon knows its comrades. Occasionally, when the fields are ripe with grain, the 
Geladas, perched upon their mountain homes, see the glowing and varied colours of the vegetation, and 
long for the luxuries of the plains. They descend and sometimes rob the farmers with impunity, and 
return after having committed a vast amount of mischief. But it happens that the great Dog-faced troops 
are out on the same errand, and the two sets of thieves speedily disagree. A fight ensues, and the 
Geladas roll down great stones, which the others try to avoid, and then they all rush together to close 
quarters, making a great uproar, and fighting with great fury. Some of these gallant Geladas had the 
audacity to stop a Serene Highness in his tra vels in Abyssinia, and very effectually, for some hours. A 
Duke of Ooburg-Gotha was in a caravan which had to traverse the pass of Meusa, in Abyssinia, and as 
there were some of the Baboons perched in numbers on the sides of the high rocky ravine, some of the 
Europeans, who of course must try and kill something as often as possible, fired upon them. The 
Baboons retaliated in a most military manner, by rolling down stones in such quantity and of such a 
size that not only had the firing party to retire, but the passage of the caravan was stopped. They 
positively closed tlie pass against all comers for some time. 
Darwin tells a laughable anecdote of a Baboon, but does not mention the kind. He saw in the 
Zoological Gardens a Baboon who always got in a furious rage when his keeper took out a letter or 
* Cynocephalus Gelada,. 
