There is a kind of Chimpanzee called by the natives “Nshiego-mbouve,” which builds a kind of leafy nest among the boughs of the loftiest trees. This nest is composed of small interlaced branches with a tight roof of leaves. It is fixed with firmly tied bands, and is generally from six to eight feet in diameter, and presents the form of a dome, an arrangement which readily throws off the rain.
The Nshiego is distinguished from the ordinary Chimpanzee, by the absence of hair on its head, and it is sometimes called the Bald Chimpanzee.
THE BABOONS—THE DOG-HEADED MONKEYS.
BABOON OR DOG-HEADED MONKEYS.
The Baboons and the Mandrills are sometimes placed in separate classes by Naturalists because of the difference in the length of their tails, but they both belong to the same family—the Cynocephali, which is derived from the words cyon, cynos, a dog, and cephale, a head, and means dog-headed.
In these creatures the teeth and the cheek-pouches, which are similar to those of the majority of the Monkey family, are combined with a long nose and the nostrils situated like those of a dog. The Baboons have longer tails than the Mandrills, and although their forms are very clumsy, they climb trees easily, and even display much agility when they are sporting among the branches; yet they seldom select the forest as their place of residence. They are found almost exclusively in Africa, although a single species is found in Asia.
The Baboon was known to the ancient Egyptians, on whose monuments it often appears, and as it symbolized the god Thoth, the inventor of the alphabet, it was held in great veneration in those days of long ago, and numerous mummies of this animal have been found in Egyptian burial places.
The Baboon prefers to walk on all fours like a quadruped, and instead of living in forests, they choose the mountainous districts, and rocky places covered with bushes and brush wood. They live in troops, and each troop takes possession of a certain district, which they defend against all intruders. If men approach, the alarm is instantly raised, the whole troop gather together, and endeavor both by their cries and their actions to drive them away. And if not successful in this they will attack such visitors with sticks, or throw stones and other missiles at them. Even firearms will not frighten the Baboons and a troop will not retreat until many are left dead upon the ground.
If a traveler is unfortunate enough to encounter one of these troops when alone, he is soon surrounded by numbers of the infuriated beasts, and literally torn to pieces. Rather than encounter such a death an Englishman once killed himself by leaping from a cliff, where he had been hemmed in by a multitude of these ferocious creatures.