extraordinary in that; the strangeness of the
matter consisted in the fact that they were all hard at work, apparently
in concert with another troop of their brethren down below who seemed to
be rushing to and fro between the rock and an adjacent clump of thorn
bush. A touch on the bridle brought Prince to a halt, and I then
produced my telescope and brought it to bear upon the busy party, when I
perceived, to my amazement, that the gang of monkeys who were rushing to
and fro between the clump of bush and the boulder were engaged in
collecting and dragging to the rock a great number of branches of
thorns, which they were passing up to their comrades upon the surface of
the rock; and that these, in their turn, as it seemed to me, were
constructing a scherm, or hedge of thorns, working in such feverish
haste that their lives might have been depending upon its speedy
completion.

The behaviour of that active gang of simians was so extraordinary that I
determined to wait and see the thing out. I therefore remained where I
was, at such a distance that my presence would not be likely to disturb
or alarm them, and kept my telescope focused upon them, with the result
that I soon began to realise, from their behaviour, that, rapid as were
all their movements, the monkeys were nevertheless taking considerable
pains to preserve silence. I noticed that none of them attempted to
drag the thorns after them through the grass; every branch was carried
at arm's length overhead; and when it was passed up to those on the top
of the rock it was not permitted to scrape or grate against the surface
of the rock, but was carefully held away from it, although it was
evident that some of the monkeys got more or less severely pricked
during the process. I also observed that those monkeys who were
actually engaged in the construction of the scherm laid the bunches of
thorns in place with elaborate care and, as it appeared to me, with
quite amazing skill and cunning.

Some ten or twelve minutes after I had come to a halt the scherm was
finished, and then came an end to the silence which the monkeys had been
at such pains to observe during the progress of the work; for, with its
completion, the creatures set up a sudden chattering and howling and
shrieking which distinctly reached me even at the distance of a good
half-mile. And with the outbreak of the clamour, all hands beat a
precipitate retreat from the surface of the rock, and arranged
t