g it.

The following account is given by Lade: "We traversed a great mountain
in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope, and amused ourselves with
hunting large baboons, which are very numerous in that place. I can
neither describe all the arts practised by these animals, nor the
nimbleness and impudence with which they returned, after being pursued
by us. Sometimes they allowed us to approach so near that I was almost
certain of seizing them. But, when I made the attempt, they sprang, at
a single leap, ten paces from me, and mounted trees with equal agility,
from whence they looked at us with great indifference, and seemed to
derive pleasure from our astonishment. Some of them were so large that,
if our interpreter had not assured us they were neither ferocious nor
dangerous, our number would not have appeared sufficient to protect us
from their attacks.

"As it could serve no purpose to kill them, we did not use our guns.
But the captain levelled his piece at a very large one, that had rested
on the top of a tree, after having fatigued us a long time in pursuing
him; this kind of menace, of which the animal, perhaps, recollected his
having sometimes seen the consequences, terrified him to such a degree,
that he fell down motionless at our feet, and we had no difficulty in
seizing him; but when he recovered from his stupor, it required all our
dexterity and efforts to keep him. We tied his paws together; but he
bit so furiously, that we were under the necessity of binding our
handkerchiefs over his head."

The common baboon is very numerous in Siam, where they frequently sally
forth in astonishing multitudes to attack the villages, during the time
the peasants are occupied in the rice harvest, and plunder their
habitations of whatever provisions they can lay their paws on. Fruits,
corn, and roots, are their usual food, although they will also eat
flesh. When hunted, baboons often make very formidable resistance to
dogs--their great strength and long claws enabling them to make a stout
defence; and it is with difficulty a single dog can overcome them,
except when they are gorged with excessive eating, in which they always
indulge when they can.

Some years ago, Mr. Rutter, doing duty at the castle of Cape Town, kept
a tame baboon for his amusement. One evening it broke its chain unknown
to him. In the night, climbing up into the belfry, it began to play
with, and ring the bell. Immediately the whole place was in