When I was a girl of about ten I used to wander a great deal alone in the hills and valleys, and watch the baboons as they played among the rocks.

There was one family of baboons that I watched especially--they used to live in a kloof about a mile from the house.

The old man baboon was very large, and one of the females had a grey face.

But the reason why I watched them so much was because I saw that they had with them a creature that looked like a girl, for her skin was quite white, and, what was more, that she was protected from the weather when it happened to be cold by a fur belt of some sort, which was tied round her throat.
The old baboons seemed to be especially fond of her, and would sit with their arms round her neck.

For nearly a whole summer I watched this particular white-skinned baboon till at last my curiosity quite overmastered me.