From Pole to Pole: A Book for Young People

by Sven Anders Hedin

Some say that the ostrich is inconceivably stupid, but others will not accept such a severe condemnation. The traveller Schillings, who is noted for his photographs of big game in Africa taken at night by flashlight, once followed the spoor of some lions for several hours. Suddenly he came upon an ostrich's nest with newly hatched chickens, and he wondered where the parents were. To his astonishment, he found that the lion had not touched the defenceless creatures, and he soon discovered the reason. In the moonlight night the ostriches had perceived the danger in time and sprang up to lure the lion away from the nest. Their stratagem succeeded, for it was evident from the spoor that the lion had pursued the flying ostriches farther and farther from the nest. And when the pair of ostriches thought that they had enticed the king of animals far enough off, they returned home.

Baboons

Baboons are monkeys which resemble dogs rather than human beings, and almost always remain on the ground, seldom climbing trees. They are cruel, malicious, and cunning, their expression is fierce and savage, and their eyes wicked. Among their allies they are surpassed in strength only by the gorilla; and they are bold and spirited, and do not shun a deadly struggle with the leopard. They have sharp and powerful teeth with which to defend themselves, and their tusks are very formidable.

The old Egyptians paid deep homage to the sacred apes, which belong to the baboon tribe, and had them represented on their monuments as judges in the kingdom of death. They live in large companies among the cliffs of the Red Sea coast of Nubia and Abyssinia, but they also occur in the interior on high mountains. Roots, fruits, worms, and snails are their chief food. They are afraid of snakes, but they catch scorpions, carefully pinching off the poison gland before eating the reptiles. When durra fields are in the neighbourhood of the baboons' haunts, watchmen must be posted, or the animals work great havoc among the grain. And when they are out on a raid, they, too, have sentinels on the lookout in every direction.

During the night and when it rains they sit huddled up among inaccessible rocks, whither they climb with wonderful activity. They sally forth in the morning to satisfy their hunger, returning to the high rocks at noon. Afterwards they go to the nearest brook or spring to drink, and after another meal retire for the night.

If a party of such baboons, consisting perhaps of a hundred individuals, is sitting in a row near the edge of a cliff and suddenly becomes aware of a threatening danger—as, for instance, a prowling leopard—they all utter the most singular noises, grunting, shrieking, barking, and growling. The old males go to the edge and look down into the valley, fuss about and show their ugly tusks and strike their forepaws against the sides of the rock with a loud smack. The young ones seek their mother's protection and keep behind them.

Brehm once surprised such a party huddled together on the margin of a cliff. The first shot that echoed through the valley roused the greatest commotion and displeasure, and the monkeys howled and bellowed in chorus. Then they began to move with astonishing activity and surefootedness. Two more shots thundered through the valley, doing no damage but increasing their panic and fury. At every fresh shot they halted a moment, beat their paws against the rocks and yelled abuse at their disturbers. The front of the cliff seemed in some places to be vertical, but the baboons climbed about everywhere. At the next bend of the road the whole troop came down into the valley, intending to continue their flight among the rocks on the opposite side. Two sporting dogs in Brehm's caravan flew off like arrows after the troop of baboons, but before they could come up with it, the old baboons halted, turned round and presented such a terrible front to the dogs that these quickly turned back. When the dogs were hounded on to the baboons a second time, most of the latter were already safe among the rocks, only a few remaining in the valley, among them a small young one. Frightened at the onslaught of the dogs, the little creature fled shrieking up a boulder, while the dogs stood round its base. Brehm wished to catch the young one alive, but just then an old male came calmly to the boulder, taking no heed of the danger. He turned his fierce eyes on the dogs, controlling them with his gaze, jumped up on to the block, whispered some calming sound into the ear of the young one, and set out on his return with his protégé. The dogs were so cowed that they never attacked, and both the young baboon and his rescuer were able to retire unmolested to their friends.

The Hippopotamus

In the lakes and rivers of all central Africa lives the large, clumsy, and ugly hippopotamus. In former times it occurred also in Lower Egypt, where it was called the river hog, but at the present day it is necessary to go a good distance south of Nubia in order to find it. In many rivers it migrates with the seasons. It descends the river as this falls in the dry season, and moves up again when the bed is filled by rain.

The body of the hippopotamus is round and clumsy, and is supported by four short shapeless legs with four hoofed toes on each foot. The singular head is nearly quadrangular, the eyes and ears are small, the snout enormously broad and the nostrils wide (Plate XXIX.). The hairless hide, three-quarters of an inch thick, changes from grey to dark brown and dirty red according as it is dry or wet. The animal is thirteen feet long, without the small short tail, and weighs as much as thirty full-grown men.