ree of the oxen were not brought back till late at night, so
frightened had the animals been by the approach of the lion. In the
afternoon, as it was too late to think of proceeding, our travelers,
with their guns on their shoulders, and accompanied by Omrah and Begum,
who would always follow the Major if she was not tied up, strolled away
from the camp to amuse themselves. At first they walked to the hill from
which they had such a splendid view of the valley covered with
elephants, and, proceeding to where the male elephant had fallen, found
that his flesh had, by the Caffres, the wolves, and the vultures, been
completely taken off his bones, and it lay there a beautiful skeleton
for a museum.

As, however, they had no room for such weighty articles in their wagons,
they left it, after Swinton had made some observations upon the
structure of the animal. Begum would not go near the skeleton, but
appeared to be frightened at it. They then proceeded to the rock which
had been their place of refuge when the herd of elephants had charged
upon them; and as they stood under it, they were suddenly saluted with a
loud noise over their heads, sounding like quah, quah!

As soon as Begum heard it, she ran up to the Major with every sign of
trepidation, holding fast to his skin trowsers.

"What was that?" said Alexander; "I see nothing."

"I know what it is," said the Major; "it is a herd of baboons; there
they are; don't you see their heads over the rocks?"

"Let them show themselves a little more, and we'll have a shot at them,"
replied Alexander, cocking his gun.

"Not for your life," cried Swinton; "you will be skinned and torn to
pieces, if they are numerous, and you enrage them. You have no idea
what savage and powerful creatures they are. Look at them now; they are
coming down gradually; we had better be off."

"I think so too," said the Major; "they are very angry; they have seen
Begum, and imagine that we have one of their herd in our possession.
Pray don't fire, Wilmot, unless it is for your life; we are too few to
make them afraid of us. Here they come; there are a hundred of them at
least; let us walk away slowly--it won't do to run, for that would make
them chase us at once."

The baboons, some of which were of gigantic size, were now descending
from the rock, grunting, grinning, springing from stone to stone,
protruding their mouths, shaking their heads, drawing back the skin of
their foreheads, and showing