At last Hastings peeped out, and began to
laugh; so Romer and I looked out also, and there we saw about one
hundred and fifty large baboons leaping and tumbling about in such a way
as I never saw; they were bigger than we were--indeed, when they stood
on their hind legs they were much taller, and they had very large white
tusks. Some of them were females, with young ones on their backs, and
they were just as active as the males. At last they played such antics,
that we all burst out into a loud laugh, and we had not ceased when we
found the grinning face of one of the largest of those brutes close to
our own. He had dropped from the rock above us, like magic. We all
three backed into the cave, very much frightened, for the teeth of the
animal were enormous, and he looked very savage. He gave a shrill cry,
and we perceived all the rest of the herd coming to him as fast as they
could. I said that the cave was large enough to hold six of us; but
there was a sort of inner cave which we had not gone into, as the
entrance was much smaller. Romer cried out, `Let us go into the inside
cave--we can get in one by one;' and he backed in; Hastings followed
with his bundle, and I hurried in after him just in time; for the
baboons, who had been chattering to each other for half a minute, came
into the outer cave just as I crawled into the inner. Five or six of
them came in, all males, and very large. The first thing they did was
to lay hold of Romer's bundle, which they soon opened--at once they
seized his provisions and rammed them into their pouches, and then they
pulled out the other things and tore them all to pieces. As soon as
they had done with the bundle, two of them came towards the inner cave
and saw us. One put his long paw in to seize us; but Hastings gave him
a slash with his knife, and the animal took his paw out again fast
enough. It was laughable to see him hold out his hand to the others,
and then taste the blood with the tip of his tongue, and such a
chattering I never heard--they were evidently very angry, and more came
into the cave and joined them; then another put in his hand, and
received a cut just as before. At last, two or three at once tried to
pull us out, but we beat them all off with our knives, wounding them all
very severely. For about an hour they continued their attempts, and
then they went away out of the cave, but remained at the mouth shrieking
and howling. We began to be very tired