JMDINOCIIE NY (Ole - CisleCMileN 
marauding band of apes is guarded by a few old males 
who form a rear guard. The chacma prefers rocky and 
stony localities, and is mainly a ground dweller; but 
it can climb trees with skill. When running along this 
and all species of the lower apes tread on the palms of 
their hands, in this differing from the anthropoid apes 
who double up their hands, and progress upon the 
knuckles. The chacma can go at a good pace when 
put to it; but it is a ferocious beast, and will stand 
up to a fight if attacked. Its chief enemy, who is the 
leopard, is sometimes severely mauled by an old fellow 
whose canine teeth and strength of muscle are hardly 
inferior to those of the aggressor. Whether the chacma 
throws stones or not, it is plain that many baboons do, 
and indeed in this they resemble some other monkeys 
who pelt the stranger with the local equivalent of the 
“arf a brick’ of Aryan civilization. Ferocious though 
the elderly baboon may be, the young are more engaging 
in their disposition. The traveller le Vaillant indeed 
speaks well of the race. A pet chacma was of con- 
siderable use to him as a taster, such as were employed 
by medieval monarchs for their protection. When a 
dubious, but good-looking root was discovered, the 
chacma was encouraged to bite it; and if it refused 
with ‘“‘ every symptom of disgust,” the root was not 
entered on themenu. The chacma is most omnivorous ; 
it eats anything and everything, from the leaves of the 
prickly pear (especially, it is stated, the most prickly 
leaves !) up toinsects. It will descend in its hordes upon 
orchards and fields, and has lately caught the trick, 
like the kea in New Zealand, of tearing open young 
lambs for the sake of the curdled milk in their stomachs. 
At least the baboon prefers the milk while the kea is 
more thorough and less specialized in his appetites. 
This baboon is diurnal, retiring to rest at night in 
the most respectable middle-class fashion, its slumbers 
32 
