THE MAN-SHAPED APES (_continued_)--THE NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ--THE
KOOLO-KAMBA--THE SOKO--THE CHIMPANZEE.
THE NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ--Its Nests and Habits--A Specimen
Shot--Differences between it and the Gorilla--Structural
Peculiarities--THE KOOLO-KAMBA--Meaning of the Name--Discovered
by Du Chaillu--Its Outward Appearance and Anatomy--THE
SOKO--Discovered by Livingstone--Hunting the Soko--THE
CHIMPANZEE--In Captivity--On board Ship--A Young Chimpanzee--The
Brain and Nerves--Anatomical Peculiarities--General Remarks upon
the Group.
THE NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ.[8]
This great Ape, which attains the height of four feet, and has a spread
of arms of seven feet, was discovered by Du Chaillu in the Gaboon
district. It is remarkable for building very comfortable shelters, and
this led to its being found; for Du Chaillu, in one of his excursions,
was trudging along, rather tired of sport, when he saw a most
singular-looking shelter built on the branches of a tree. He thought
it had been made by the natives, and asked whether the hunters had the
habit of sleeping in the woods, but was told, to his great surprise,
that it was a nest built by the Nschiego Mbouvé, an Ape. Moreover, one
of the natives told him that it was a curious creature, which had a
bald head.
Many of the nests were seen subsequently, and it was noticed that they
were generally built about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground,
and invariably on a tree which stands slightly apart from others, and
which had no lower bough beneath the shelter. Occasionally they are
to be seen at the height of fifty feet; and it would appear that the
altitude has something to do with the dread of the few flesh-eating
and destructive beasts, such as the Leopard. The loneliest parts of
the forest are chosen, for the animal is shy, and is very rarely seen,
even by the negroes. The materials for the nest consist of leafy
branches, and are collected by the male and the female also, who tie
them together, and to the tree, very neatly with twigs of the vine.
The roof is so well constructed that it closely resembles human work,
and it throws off the rain admirably, for it is neatly rounded at the
top. During its construction, the female gathers the branches and
vines, whilst the male builds; but afterwards they do not occupy the
same shelter, the male making another close by in a neighbouring tree.
The roof, which is usually some six or eight feet in diameter, is more
or less dome-shaped, or something like an extended umbrella; and the
Nschiego gets under it and clasps the tree, or squats on a bough, so
that its head is just beneath the under surface. The nests are not
occupied permanently, and usually for not more than eight or ten days,
for the Apes, living upon wild berries of a certain kind, select spots
where they are plentiful, and leave them when the store is exhausted.
Du Chaillu never saw many nests together, and he does not think the
animals live in troops, but only in pairs. Sometimes a solitary nest is
seen, inhabited by a Nschiego, whose silvery hair denotes its age, and
probably its desire for solitude after a long and troublous life.
Being desirous of obtaining one of these shelter makers, as they were
evidently new to science, Du Chaillu took every precaution to surprise
his prey; but it is best to tell the story in his own words:--
“We travelled with great caution, not to alarm our prey, and had a hope
that, by singling out a shelter, and waiting till dark, we should find
it occupied. In this hope we were not disappointed. Lying quite still
in our concealment (which tried my patience sorely), we at last, just
at dusk, heard the peculiar ‘Hew, hew, hew,’ which is the call of the
male to his mate. We waited till it was quite dark, and then I saw what
I had so longed all the weary afternoon to see. A Nschiego was sitting
in his nest. His feet rested on the lower branch, his head reached
quite into the little dome of the roof, and his arm was clasped firmly
round the tree-trunk. This is their way of sleeping. After gazing till
I was tired through the gloom at my sleeping victim, two of us fired,
and the unfortunate beast fell at our feet without a struggle, or even
a groan. We built a fire at once, and made our camp in this place, that
when daylight came I might first of all examine and skin my prize. The
poor Ape was hung up to be out of the way of insects, and I fell asleep
on my bed of leaves and grass, as pleased a man as the world could well
hold. Next morning I had leisure to examine the Nschiego.
[Illustration: NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ. (From a Stuffed Specimen.)]
“I was at once struck with points of difference between it and the
Chimpanzee. It was smaller, and had a bald black head. This is its
distinctive character. This specimen was three feet eleven inches high,
or long. It was an adult. Its skin, where there is no hair, is black,
and the thick breast and abdomen are covered with short and rather thin
blackish hairs. On the lower part of the abdomen the hair is thinnest,
but this is not perceived unless looked at carefully, as the skin is
the colour of the hair. On the legs the hair is of a dirty grey, mixed
with black. The shoulders and back have black hair between two and
three inches long, mixed with a little grey. The arms down to the wrist
have also long black hair, but shorter than in the Gorilla. The hair
is blacker, longer, glossier, and thinner in general than that on the
Gorilla, and the skin is not so tough. I noticed that the bare places,
where the hair is worn off by contact with hard substances in sleeping,
were different from the bare places which are so conspicuous on the
common Chimpanzee.
“It is not as powerful an animal as the Gorilla, its chest is not so
large, but the arms and fingers are a little longer, and this is the
case with the toes also. The nose is not so prominent, but the mouth is
wider and the ears are larger. Its chin is rounder, and has more small
hairs, and the side of the face is thinly covered with hair, commencing
about the middle of the ear, and these would seem to be signs of an
incipient beard and whiskers. The lower parts of the body are bare, and
the skin is white there.”
Apparently the disposition and temper of the Nschiego are better than
those of the Gorilla; it is less ferocious, and is even docile in
captivity. It has not the hideous expression of the great Ape, for
there is something of a forehead above the ridge of the eyebrow, and
there are no great crests on the head, which is rounder than that of
the Gorilla. The teeth are rather smaller, but are of the same number.
The height is less than that of the female Gorilla, as a rule; and the
male of this bald kind is larger than its female; whilst the little
young ones differ in their colour from both, being white. Finally,
it would appear that there are hard callous pads on the back of the
fingers, that the hand is larger than the feet, and that the tips of
the fingers reach a little below the knee. Associated with the Gorilla
and with the Chimpanzee in the forests of Equatorial Western Africa,
the Bald-headed Troglodyte appears to have a restricted geographical
range, and not to be found over so large a district as its companions,
for it was only met with on the table-lands of the interior, and in the
densest forests.
Subsequently Du Chaillu had a good opportunity of substantiating his
statements about the nests.
“On our way down, at sunset of the third day, we heard the call of a
Nschiego Mbouvé (_Troglodytes calvus_). I immediately caused my men
to lie down, and was just getting into a hiding-place myself, when I
saw, in the branches of a tree at a little distance, the curious nest
or bower of this Ape; hard by, on another tree, was another shelter.
We crept up within shot of this nest, and then waited, for I was
determined to see once more the precise manner in which this animal
goes to rest. We lay flat on the ground, and covered ourselves with
leaves and bush, scarcely daring to breathe, lest the approaching
animal should hear us. From time to time I heard the calls. There were
evidently two, probably male and female. Just as the sun was setting,
I saw an animal approach the tree. It ascended by a hand-over-hand
movement, with great rapidity, crept carefully under the shelter,
seated itself on the crotch made by a projecting bough, its feet and
haunches resting on this bough; then it put one arm about the trunk of
the tree for security.
[Illustration: SKELETON OF NSCHIEGO.]
“Thus, I suppose, they rest all night; and this posture accounts for
some singular abrasions of hair on the side of the Nschiego Mbouvé.
At a little distance off I saw another shelter made for the mate.
No sooner was it seated than it began again to utter its call. It
was answered; and I began to have the hope that I should shoot both
animals, when an unlucky motion of one of my men roused the suspicions
of the Ape in the tree. It began to prepare for descent, and, unwilling
to risk the loss of this one, I fired. It fell to the ground dead. It
proved to be a male, with the face and hands entirely black. As we
were not in haste, I made my men cut down the trees which contained
the nests of these Apes. I found them made precisely as I have before
described, and as I have always found them, of long branches and
leaves, laid one over the other very carefully and thickly, so as
to render the structure capable of shedding off water. The branches
were fastened to the tree in the middle of the structure by means of
wild vines and creepers, which are so abundant in these forests. The
projecting limb on which the Ape perched was about four feet long.
There remains no doubt in my mind that these nests are made by the
animal to protect it from the nightly rains. When the leaves begin to
dry to that degree that the structure no longer throws off water, the
owner builds a new shelter, and this happens generally once in ten
or fifteen days. At this rate the Nschiego Mbouvé is an animal of no
little industry.”
The differences between the outside appearance and the intelligence and
temper of this Bald-headed Ape and those of the Gorilla are accompanied
by certain internal ones. A careful examination of the skull of the
Tschiégo, as its clever French describer, Duvernay, calls it, shows
that it has smaller ridges, a less prominent muzzle, and a wider and
shorter roof of the mouth than the Gorilla. The last of the upper
crushing, or back teeth, is the smallest. In the Gorilla they are
nearly equal in size. The lower jaw in the Nschiego has three nearly
equal-sized molar or back teeth, and the first and the second have
five projections or cusps, but the last has only four. In the Gorilla
it has five cusps. These minute differences are probably constant, and
therefore must not be passed over, although they may seem to be of no
importance to the creatures. But the classification of animals can
only depend upon the presence or absence of structural peculiarities;
and when such and such a structure exists in one, and not in another,
they cannot both be of the same kind. According to the relation of the
structure to the life, and according to its being constantly found, so
is it important in deciding whether the “kind” is a species, or a mere
variety or race.
[Illustration: SKULL OF NSCHIEGO.]
The great distinction between the two animals is that the Nschiego’s
forehead, formed by the frontal bone, rises up from the great brow
ridge, and is visible from the front. This is not the case with
the Gorilla, whose forehead recedes greatly. Both animals have the
same number of ribs (thirteen), but those of the Nschiego are more
man-shaped and are not so broad and close together; and their chests
differ in breadth, for the breast-bone of the new Ape is narrower, but
it is long and thick. The blade-bone, so important to the Gorilla, is
equally so to the Nschiego, but it is longer and narrower on the back,
and its spine is very oblique. Possibly this conformation of the bone
may have to do with the constant climbing of the Bald-headed Ape, but
nevertheless the spines on the neck-bones, which give origin to such
exceedingly strong muscles in the Gorilla, are much smaller in the
Nschiego. The first neck-bone, or atlas, has no spine in this Ape, in
which it is like man, and the axis, or second, has a forked spine, and
is crested at the end, but otherwise is like that in man.
Finally, the rudiment of a tail is like that end of the back-bone found
in the Gorilla and in man.
These are the principal points and the most important distinctions;
they show that the Nschiego cannot be of the same kind or species as
the Gorilla, but is a Troglodyte, resembling the Gorilla somewhat in
its skeleton, and although smaller than the male, still quite, if not
more, man-shaped.
The London Zoological Society own a fine example of the Bald-headed
Chimpanzee (_Anthropopithecus calvus_), which, under the name of
“Sally,” is known to every frequenter of their famous Gardens, where it
has resided since October, 1883.
THE KOOLO-KAMBA.[9]
This kind of Troglodyte is celebrated for saying koola-koolo over
and over again as its favourite cry, for having a very extraordinary
frog-like figure, and for being one of those creatures which are
exceedingly interesting to zoologists, because they are, as it were,
half one thing and half another.
A neighbour of the great Apes already noticed, it associates also with
the common Chimpanzee, in the quiet forests of Western Equatorial
Africa. In one of these Du Chaillu first saw it, and he describes his
discovery as follows:--
“We had hardly got clear of the Bashikoway ants and their bites
when my ears were saluted by the singular cry of the Ape I was
after. ‘Koola-koolo! koola-koolo!’[10] it said several times. Gambo
and I raised our eyes, and saw, high up on a tree-branch, a large
Ape. We both fired at once, and the next moment the poor beast fell
to the ground with a heavy crash. I rushed up, anxious to see if,
indeed, I had a new animal. I saw in a moment that it was neither
a Nschiego Mbouvé, nor a Chimpanzee, nor a Gorilla. Again I had a
happy day--marked for ever with red ink in my calendar. We at once
disembowelled the animal, which was a male. I found in its intestines
only vegetable matter and remains. The skin and skeleton were taken
into camp, where I cured the former with arsenic sufficiently to take
it into Obindji. The animal was a full-grown male, four feet three
inches high, and was less powerfully built than the male Gorilla, but
as powerful as either the Chimpanzee or Nschiego Mbouvé. When it was
brought into Obindji, all the people, and even Quenqueza, at once
exclaimed, ‘That is a Koolo-Kamba.’ Then I asked them about the other
Apes I already knew, but for these they had other names, and did not
at all confound the species. For all these reasons I was assured that
my prize was indeed a new animal; a variety, at least, of those before
known. The Koolo-Kamba has several distinctive marks: a very round
head, whiskers running quite round the face and below the chin; the
face is round, the cheek-bones prominent, the eyes sunken, and the jaws
not very prominent, less so than in any of the Apes. The hair is black
and long on the arm, which was, however, partly bare. The Koolo is the
Ape, of all the great Apes now known, which most nearly approaches
man in the structure of its head; for the capacity of the cranium is
somewhat greater, in proportion to the animal’s size, than in either
the Gorilla or the Nschiego Mbouvé. Of its habits these people could
tell me nothing, except that farther in the interior it was found
more frequently, and that it was like the Gorilla, very shy and hard
of approach.” They are rare animals, and Du Chaillu met with this one
only; it was as large as a female Gorilla, and from its structure was
evidently a great climber.
One was killed and sent over to Paris several years since, and its
anatomy forms a great treatise by the distinguished men whose names are
appended to its title, _Troglodytes Aubryi_.
They agree with Du Chaillu in his slight notice of its shape and
peculiarities to a certain extent, and in his notice that the arms
reach below the knee, that the shoulders are broad, and that the ears
are large, but they give some very interesting descriptions of its
strange characteristics. It has many points of resemblance with the
Gorilla and many with the Nschiego, but it has others which cause it
to be like the common Chimpanzee, and which show some likeness to
the great Baboon. It fills up the gap in the animal scale between
the Nschiego and Gorilla on the one hand, and the true Chimpanzee
(_Troglodytes niger_) on the other; and were it not in existence, it
would be necessary to divide these Apes into two groups or genera, to
make, in fact, a genus Gorilla and a genus Troglodytes, the first to
contain the Gorilla and Nschiego, and the last the Chimpanzee. They are
all therefore linked together in one genus by it, that of _Troglodytes_.
The shape and the peculiar anatomy of the Koolo-Kamba are not simply
curious and only interesting to those who study dry bones, for they
have to do with its habits and mode of life, and their examination
is full of instruction to those who like to understand causes and
effects, and design in Nature. Much has been explained in the chapter
on the Gorilla regarding the different parts of the body, and if that
information is considered there will be no difficulty in comprehending
all about the Ape now under consideration.
The shape of the body as a whole is admirably adapted for great
powers of climbing and of exertion of the limbs, and these last are
adapted for the same end in a manner surpassing the great Apes already
described. But, moreover, the body is peculiarly suited, not for
maintaining or often using the upright position or the legs, but for
going on all-fours, like a Baboon or Dog. Doubtless the Gorilla and the
Nschiego do often stand up for a short time, and their construction
points at this being very possible, as their frame has a combination of
structures for doing this and for climbing. Now the Koolo-Kamba must
differ from them in its structure, for it requires those which enable
it to invariably go on all-fours, and yet to climb better than the
others.
It never wants to sit down, except with its knees drawn up to its nose,
and it squats on its haunch bones (the tuberosities of the haunch--of
the “_ischium_” bone).
The body is very ball-like, and there is no visible division between
the chest, the stomach, and the hips; it is not troubled with a waist,
and anything like one is positively below the hips, just over where the
thighs join the body. In fact, as before noticed, the shape is that
of a frog. There are no graceful curves to the back, and there is no
“small” to it. On looking at the chest, it will be noticed that it is
long behind and short in front; the ribs go down close to the edge of
the hips; and in order that this extra stoutness and strength of loin
shall be there, there are fourteen ribs, instead of thirteen, as in the
other great Apes. The breast-bone in front sticks out, so that were the
animal to lie on its stomach its point would lean on the ground, and
not its front, as in us. This last peculiarity is an adaptation for
going on all-fours. The absence of waist and the shape of the loins
relate to the small size of one of the muscles of the back (sacro
lumbalis), large and important in man.
[Illustration: KOOLO-KAMBA.]
The belly is very large, and it is kept from pushing into the chest by
the capacity given to the space within the ribs and breast-bone, by a
bulged-out state of the ribs at the back, and the projection of the
breast-bone. Hence, the frog-like figure looks asthmatical; and as it
is very high-shouldered, there is but little neck.
All this bulging has not only reference to the maintenance of the
capacity of the lungs, and its independence of the great stomach,
which, when full, would tend to press in all directions, but it enables
the muscles of the back and shoulders, which have so much to do with
climbing, to be large and vigorous. More space is afforded for the
insertion or attachment of muscular fibres.
The blade-bone does not add to the bulk of the shoulders, for it is
rather long and narrow for a great Ape; and its spine, which has so
much to do with the muscles which lift up the arm, is very much aslant,
and in the best direction for constant climbing, instead of much
walking on the knuckles. And that climbing and holding on are the usual
motions may be credited, it is only necessary to notice that the arms
and the fingers are long, and that the tips of them touch below the
knee when the skeleton is placed upright. Moreover, this great length
is accompanied by corresponding strength, and also by a very curious
condition of the hands.
The Koolo has a larger hand in relation to its breadth than the
Gorilla, and there are no bunches of muscle forming rounded swellings
or balls under the thumb and little finger. On the contrary, the
long and narrow palm is, as it were, bent across, as if it could fit
capitally on to a bough. There is no doubt that this Ape, like all the
others, does a good deal of swinging, by holding on to boughs with its
hands, when the arms are straight above the head; and that they move
along a bough, or from tree to tree, in this position, without bending
the elbow, and with considerable speed. This method of getting along
may also be seen in Chimpanzees. Evidently the curved palm will be of
immense advantage in such actions, and especially when it is combined,
as it is in the Koolo-Kamba, with a slightly bent-downwards condition
of the fingers. The bones (phalanges) of the fingers are long, and
each is slightly curved, and not straight, as in man and the great
Apes already noticed, so that their three bones, when in their proper
position, are decidedly out of a straight line, and present a general
curve, which is rendered all the more decided by the bend in the palm.
All this is very useful for grasping and holding on. But it is not
all; in man and the other great Apes, the wrist consists of two rows
of small bones, one placed before the other: the first row is jointed
to the bones of the fore-arm, at what is called the wrist-joint, which
moves forwards and backwards as a hinge; and the second row is so
jointed on the first row that there is no movement, and in front it is
jointed to the bones of the palm, and to those of the thumb. Now in the
Koolo the second row of wrist-bones--or as they are called from the
Latin, _carpus_, a wrist--carpal bones _are movable_ on the first row,
and muscular exertion can bend, not only the metacarpal bones and the
fingers, but also the wrist-bones. Hence the hand is more movable in
the bending direction than that of man, and the reason is because of
the peculiar requirements of the creature’s life. The thumb is small,
and only reaches the first joint of the forefinger: its tip can only
touch the tip of one finger at a time, and not those of all, as in
man, and therefore it is not of much use in distinguishing objects by
touch; moreover, it cannot be stuck out far--and this is necessary,
for in climbing its tip is required to be as close to the fingers as
is possible. The muscles of the hands and arms resemble those of the
Chimpanzee generally, and will be noticed in describing it.
When the Koolo-Kamba walks, it does so like the Gorilla, by leaning on
the backs of its fingers, and hence it has callous pads on the back
of their second bones. All the peculiar construction of the hands and
wrist bears a relation to the vast muscular development of the muscles
of the back of the chest and shoulders in the process of climbing;
and it is to be observed, as it was in the instance of the Gorilla,
that these muscles have more to do with such actions than those of
the chest, which go to the arm, and which are so much used in man for
that purpose. The muscles of the chest are not large and strong in the
Apes, for, as has already been mentioned, they climb with the back of
the hand towards the face, and do not attempt, like man, to lift the
body with the palm and nails turned towards him. This last proceeding
necessitates large chest muscles, and the former large ones at the back
of the shoulders.
There is something remarkable about the haunch-bones, or those parts of
them which support the body when sitting. In man they are well in front
of the end of the back-bone, which tapers off and turns in a little,
and forms a rudiment of a tail. These tuberosities of the haunch-bone
(as they are called, because they are swollen out and flattened for
the especial purpose in man) are placed, in the Koolo-Kamba, behind
the end of the spine or the true rudiment of the tail, and this throws
all the under parts backwards, giving the animal a thorough Baboon and
animal character. Oddly enough, the rudiment of the tail in this Ape is
smaller than in man.
A study of the foot shows that it is of immense use in holding on and
in climbing, and of none in walking. It looks more like a small hand,
furnished with a great thumb, than a foot with a toe-thumb.
It differs from human feet in the length of the toes, and this is
rather an interesting artistic point, for there is some diversity in
the opinions regarding which should be the longest toes in man.
The Greek statues--those grand models of the highest types of
mankind--very constantly have the second toe the longest, and reaching
more to the front, when the foot is on the ground, than the great
toe and the third. Nowadays, after men have had their feet pinched,
cabined, and confined in all sorts of boots and shoes, generation after
generation it is wonderful that their toes should be of any shape at
all; and, therefore, it must be anticipated that the Grecian type will
not always prevail. Nevertheless, although the great toe is often
the longest, the third toe never is, except there is some decided
deformity, like double toes. It is, however, the third toe which is the
longest in the Ape, just as the third finger of the hand is the longest
in man; and hence the Ape’s foot, with its great thumb, is in this
hand-like. But as has been mentioned before, bone for bone, and almost
muscle for muscle, the human and Ape’s foot agree, and the hinder
extremity of this last is really a foot with a toe-thumb.
On looking at the head of the Koolo, one is struck with the great ears,
which are larger than those of the Apes already described, and almost
as large as, but less detached, than those of the Chimpanzee. The skull
is globular, and with a low contracted forehead receding behind the
brow crests; but there are only faint ridges on its sides, although
the muscles of the jaw are large, and they come from the sides of the
skull. The head is very hairy, and the face, which is very prognathous
(Greek, _gnathos_, jaw or mouth), or projecting in front, is black.
It is rendered very tigerish and ugly by the flat nose merging into a
wide, thick, projecting upper lip, without any furrow; and the mouth
looks like a wide slit, there being no chin, on account of the pouting
nature of the great lips.
Like the other Troglodytes, the Koolo-Kamba has great air sacs or
throat pouches, which are hidden amongst the great muscles of the
neck, and enter the organ of voice, or the larynx, between the upper
and lower structures for the production of vocal sound. Their size
and general nature may be satisfactorily compared with those of the
Gorilla. (See page 22.)
Having something of a voice, this Ape has a better-formed palate than
the others, and its tongue has not such a jumble of papillæ or little
needle points on it as they have, for the larger cup-shaped ones are
arranged at the back in the shape of the letter Y. The last molar tooth
of the lower jaw has five cusps.
A huge eater of vegetable food, it requires a large stomach, and this
has the two openings very close together, that is to say, the one for
the passage of food in, and the other for the passage of food out,
into the small gut. There is, as in all vegetarians by nature, a large
great intestine, enormous, in fact, and this ends, as in man, in a
blind gut with an appendix. The cause of all this is that vegetable
food does not contain much available nourishment, and large portions
of it must come in contact with the mucous or absorbing membrane of
the stomach and bowels, in order that a proper quantity of nutritious
matter may be absorbed, and be made into blood. The contrary is the
case in flesh-eating animals, whose food contains a high percentage
of nourishment; for in them the stomach and intestines are small, the
surface required not being great, and nature is wonderfully economical.
THE SOKO.
This animal, both as regards its name, description, and habits, we owe
to Livingstone; and the stories which he heard of it from the natives,
in the strange country to the west of the great lake Tanganyika, must
have wiled away many a weary hour during his ill-health and gradual
loss of energy.
The first notice of it is curious, and occurs in his “Last Journals.”
They were in want of rain, and he writes:--“A Soko, alive, was believed
to be a good charm for rain, so one was caught; and the captor had the
ends of two fingers and toes bitten off. The Soko, or Gorilla, always
tries to bite off these parts, and has been known to overpower a young
man, and leave him without the ends of fingers and toes. I saw the nest
of one; it was a poor contrivance--no more architectural skill shown
than in the nest of our cushat dove.” Here the consideration of this
creature might have ended, for Livingstone terms it a Gorilla, but this
name, like that of Pongo, is evidently given to all great African Apes
with bad characters, and moreover, as will be noticed presently, when
one of the illustrious traveller’s native companions came to England,
and was shown a stuffed Gorilla, he decided that it was not the same
thing as the Soko.
In another part of his Journal Livingstone returns to the Soko, which
he still calls the Gorilla; but in the drawings given it evidently is
not one, and is neither as large in its body nor as ugly in the face;
moreover, the large ears would cause it to be considered, were there
not other reasons, as one of the true Chimpanzees, or _Troglodytes
niger_.
The following extracts from Livingstone possess undoubted interest:--
“24th August.--Four Gorillas or Sokos were killed yesterday; an
extensive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and
coming on the plain they were speared. They often go erect, but place
the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus the Soko
is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would not call
him a ‘dear,’ but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking villain,
without a particle of the gentleman in him. Other animals, especially
the Antelopes, are graceful, and it is pleasant to see them, either at
rest or in motion; the natives also are well made, lithe and comely to
behold; but the Soko, if large, would do well to stand for a picture of
the devil. He takes away my appetite by his disgusting bestiality of
appearance. His light yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint
apology for a beard; the forehead, villainously low, with high ears, is
well in the background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly
human, but the canines show the beast by their large development. The
hands, or rather the fingers, are like those of the natives. The flesh
of the feet is yellow; and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour
it, leaves the impression that eating Sokos was the first stage by
which they arrived at being cannibals; they say the flesh is delicious.
The Soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully
stalking men and women while at their work; kidnapping children, and
running up trees with them, he seems to be amused by the sight of the
young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of
bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the child; the young Soko, in such
a case, would cling closely to the armpit of the elder. One man was
cutting out honey from a tree, and naked, when a Soko suddenly appeared
and caught him, then let him go; another man was hunting, and missed
in his attempt to stab a Soko; it seized the spear, and broke it, then
grappled with the man, who called to his companions, ‘Soko has caught
me!’ The Soko bit off the ends of his fingers, and escaped unharmed.
Both men are now alive at Bambarré.”
[Illustration: PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG SOKO. (_Copied by permission from
the Engraving In Livingstone’s “Last Journal.”_)]
“The Soko is so cunning, and has such sharp eyes, that no one can stalk
him in front without being seen; hence, when shot, it is always in the
back; when surrounded by men and nets, he is generally speared in the
back too, otherwise he is not a very formidable beast. He is nothing,
as compared in power of damaging his assailant, to a Leopard or Lion,
but is more like a man unarmed, for it does not occur to him to use
his canine teeth, which are long and formidable. Numbers of them came
down in the forest, within a hundred yards of our camp, and would be
unknown but for giving tongue like Fox-hounds; this is their nearest
approach to speech. A man, hoeing, was stalked by a Soko, and seized;
he roared out, but the Soko giggled and grinned, and left him as if he
had done it in play. A child, caught up by a Soko, is often abused by
being pinched, and scratched, and let fall.”
[Illustration: SOKO HUNT. (_After a Sketch by Dr. Livingstone._)]
“The Soko kills the Leopard occasionally, by seizing both paws and
biting them, so as to disable them; he then goes up a tree, groans
over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the Leopard dies. At
other times both Soko and Leopard die. The Lion kills him at once, and
sometimes tears his limbs off, but does not eat him. The Soko eats no
flesh; small bananas are his dainties, but not maize. His food consists
of wild fruits, which abound, and of these one is like large sweet sop,
but indifferent in taste. The Soko brings forth at times twins. A very
large Soko was seen by Mohamad’s hunters, sitting picking his nails;
they tried to stalk him, but he vanished. Some Manyuema think that
their buried dead rise as Sokos, and one was killed with holes in his
ears, as if he had been a man. He is very strong, and fears guns, but
not spears. He never catches women.”
“Sokos collect together, and make a drumming noise, some say with
hollow trees, then burst forth into loud yells, which are well imitated
by the natives’ embryonic music. If a man has no spear, the Soko goes
away satisfied; but if wounded, he seizes the wrist, lops off the
fingers and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites
without breaking the skin; he draws out a spear (but never uses it),
and takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the
blood; he does not seek an encounter with an armed man. He sees women
do him no harm, and never molests them; a man without a spear is
nearly safe from him. Manyuema say, ‘Soko is a man, and nothing bad
in him.’ They live in communities of about ten, each having his own
female; an intruder from another camp is beaten off with their fists
and loud yells. If one tries to seize the female of another, he is
caught on the ground, and all unite in boxing and biting the offender.
A male often carries a child, especially if they are passing from one
patch of forest to another over a grassy space; he then gives it to the
mother.”
The “Last Journals” contains a portrait of a young Soko (reproduced on
page 47), which shows a short-armed, weak-legged, long-eared creature;
and in the engraving on page 48, the adults which are being hunted are
certainly very much shorter than the natives who are killing them.
All that can be said, then, is that possibly the Soko is a kind of
Troglodyte, greatly resembling the kind we have next to notice; but
its geographical range is most interesting. Its being found so many
hundreds of miles from the Sierra del Crystal, and beyond the woods
of the coast-living Chimpanzees, would appear to prove that formerly
there were forest and jungle far away to the east, where there are now
plains, rivers, and lakes with much forest land.
[Illustration: CHIMPANZEE. (_From a Sketch by Wolf, in the possession
of the Zoological Society._)]
THE TRUE CHIMPANZEE.[11]
The name Chimpanzee has sometimes been given to all the great Apes just
described, but reference has been made, in considering some points
in their anatomy and habits, to a particular animal which bears this
name. This one comes next to them in the descending order of the scale
of beings, and completes the number of the kinds of these man-shaped
Apes of Equatorial Africa. It is the animal, the young of which have
frequently been brought to England, where they have been celebrated
for their gentle fun, romping play, good climbing, and their ability
to imitate many human habits--clothes-wearing, tobacco-smoking, and
tea-drinking especially. It is the Chimpanzee of Chimpanzees, the
young of which have such very human-looking faces and most baby-like
skulls. Being covered for the most part, and especially on the top
and sides of the head, with long black hairs, it is called the Black
Chimpanzee, or _Troglodytes niger_.
It was a sight worth seeing to be present in the Monkey House of the
Zoological Gardens, in London, when the keeper paid an early morning
visit to his attached friend, the Chimpanzee. If he was not quite
awake, or lazily inclined, and snugly covered up in his little wooden
house, and the keeper called him, a commotion was heard inside, and
then a round little figure with a large head came tumbling out,
and rushed to the iron wicket. He creeps along at a great rate on
all-fours, but the body is half erect, for the fore limbs are long,
and the knuckles, or rather the back parts of the second joints of
the fingers, are allowed to touch the ground and support the frame in
front, whilst the elbows are kept straight. The hind legs, being short,
move one after the other as in a canter, and it is readily noticed that
although the feet touch the ground on their outer edges they can rest
flat on the soles.
There is much joyful recognition, and after he has put his arms around
the keeper’s neck, he enjoys being tickled and laid on his back in the
straw. Making grunts and little laughs, he shows his fine set of teeth,
and his fine hazel-coloured eyes twinkle with fun. Then he rushes
off, tumbling head over heels, scampers over the straw, and with a
jump clasps one of the horizontal wooden bars in the cage, and swings
himself up and on to it with an ease and grace which many a gymnast
might envy. Running along this, and just balancing himself with the
assistance of the back of his hand, he nears a rope, and then, after
seizing it, swings with arms out at full length, now catching hold of
others or of the wire lattice-work with his feet and toe-thumb, or
suddenly coming to the ground with a great bounce. This is usually
preparatory to coming to the spectators, and he then squats down,
folds his arms, and moves his shoulders from side to side in a quick
and restless manner. Another scamper brings him to his house on the
ground-floor, into which he looks, and then taking a lot of biscuit, he
gives a jump on to its shelving top, sits down, and begins to eat. He
sits upright enough, and puts the biscuit into his mouth, but rather
clumsily. He does not take it between the tips of his fingers and the
thumb, but between the thumb and the side of the first finger, for
the thumb is short. Hence, as the food disappears, he appears to be
cramming the knuckle of his first finger into his mouth.[12]
One is struck with the colour of the face, which is nearly hairless,
for the tint of its skin is a dirty yellow-ochre; but it is relieved
by the beautiful white teeth, the hazel eyes, and the long hair which
comes down from the top of the head in front of the ear like a lock.
The upper lip has no furrow running down from the small and flat nose,
but it is very large, and the mouth looks like a slit in the face when
both lips are together. He has distinct eyelids; and when he sits
and looks forwards, the chin reaches below the top of the breast and
hides the neck. The palm of the hands is flesh-coloured, or darker,
and the foot looks very strange, for the hair is long over the ankle
and very black, and it ceases suddenly, so that the heel and all the
sides and the sole are naked and flesh-tinted. The absence of hair on
the face--there being a little straggling beard only--is possibly an
ornament, and it is noticed in many Monkeys; but its absence from the
under part of the hand and foot, of course, is of use, for it gives
a greater power of grasp and a finer sense of touch. The front hair
comes to a peak over the forehead, and the curve on either side is as
graceful as that of a Queen’s Counsel’s wig; then it covers a broad
low head, which looks very big behind and decidedly over-burdened
with two great ears, larger than those of the Gorilla, and which are
close neighbours to the high shoulders. Long black hair, with the ears
peering through, covers all the back and sides of the head and the
wide shoulders and very short neck, and is continued down the back,
which shows no sign of a waist, and only becomes smaller just above the
thighs. Here, then, is another instance of the frog-like body shape,
and it is produced by the same general internal arrangements which have
been noticed in the great Apes already described. That is to say, large
lungs, and a great stomach and digestive apparatus, are more important
than a slim and elegant figure; and good short back-bones, and at least
thirteen ribs on each side are more satisfactory possessions in an
African forest than long bones and a weak spine.
The arm, fore-arm, and fingers, as a limb, are long, and the tips of
the fingers reach just below the knee. This is consistent with the
scheme of the construction of the animal, and its adaptation for
the forest life, which requires the ability to move rapidly and also
to climb very easily. The arms are in constant movement when the
Chimpanzee is walking, and if they are not assisting in the motion they
are uplifted, the head being, moreover, carried a little forward with
regard to the body. When the hands clasp a cross-bar, the little use of
the small thumb is readily noticed, and the body is allowed to swing,
as it were, at the full length of the arms, the thumb not assisting
in holding on. But when it climbs a pole, it grasps just like a man
under the same circumstances, and the thumb partly encircles the wood.
It is very curious to feel the grasp of the hand, and the vigorous
squeeze that the foot can give, and to look at the palms and soles.
The palms seem very wrinkled across, but not to have a ball under the
thumb of any size, and they seem narrow for their length. But although
this is the case, and the thumb is short, they assist in grasping very
forcibly. All the fingers and the thumbs have flat nails on them, which
do not approach the character of a claw, and corresponding nails are
found on the feet. All the heel is naked, as if it came through a hole
in a stocking of black hair; and as a whole, the foot is shorter than
the hand, the third toe being the longest. The toe-thumb is easily
movable, and assists in climbing, for it grasps with the aid of the
other toes very readily. Like the other large Apes already mentioned,
it has no calf, and the legs seem to be too small for it, and to be
stuck on to the body by small hips. The roundness behind is wanting,
and therefore the muscles which particularly assist in the erect
position are not large, as in man.
Yet at first sight there is something very human about the Chimpanzee;
it looks like a very old child, and doubtless this is increased by its
gentle habits and amiability; and there is every apology to be made for
the early geographers and anatomists, who called it the “Pigmie.”
One of the first living Chimpanzees which was brought to England took
strange dislikes to people. When it was brought on board the ship it
would give its hand to be shaken by some, but refused it to others of
the sailors with marks of anger, and it speedily became very familiar
with the crew, except with a boy, to whom it never became reconciled.
When the seamen’s mess was brought on deck, it was a constant
attendant; it would go round and embrace each person, while it uttered
loud yells, and then seated itself to enjoy the repast. If it was
pleased at any favourite morsel, or if a piece of sweetmeat was given
to it, satisfaction was expressed by a sound like a “hem,” in a grave
tone; but if it was made angry or vexed, it would bark like a dog or
cry like a child, and scratch itself most vehemently. It was active and
cheerful in warm latitudes, but it became languid as it left the Torrid
Zone, so that a blanket had to be given it as the English Channel was
reached.
Bamboo, a Chimpanzee, once in the Zoological Society’s Gardens,
Regent’s Park, and the subject of the following sketch, by Lieut.
Sayers, “was purchased from a Mandingo, at Sierra Leone, who related
that he had captured him in the Bullom country some months before,
having first shot the mother, on which occasions the young ones never
fail to remain by their wounded parents. On becoming mine, he was
delivered over to a black boy, my servant, and in a few days became
so attached to him as to be exceedingly troublesome, screaming and
throwing himself into the most violent passion if he attempted to
leave him for a moment. He evinced also a most strange affection for
clothes, never omitting an opportunity of possessing himself of the
first garment he came across, whenever he had the means of entering my
apartment. He carried it immediately to the piazza, where invariably he
seated himself on it with a self-satisfied grunt; nor would he resign
it without a hard fight, and, on being worsted, exhibited every symptom
of the greatest anger. Observing this strange fancy, I procured him
a piece of cotton cloth, which, much to the amusement of all who saw
him, he was never without, carrying it with him wherever he went, nor
could any temptation induce him to resign it even for a moment. Totally
unacquainted with their mode of living in the wild state, I adopted
the following method of feeding him, which has appeared to succeed
admirably. In the morning, at eight o’clock, he received a piece of
bread, about the size of a halfpenny loaf, steeped in water or milk
and water; about two, a couple of bananas or plantains; and before he
retired for the night, a banana, orange, or slice of pine-apple. The
banana appeared to be his favourite fruit; for it he would forsake all
other viands, and if not gratified, would exhibit the utmost petulance.
On one occasion I deemed it necessary to refuse him one, considering
that he had already eaten a sufficiency, upon which he threw himself
into the most violent passion, and uttering a piercing cry, knocked his
head with such violence against the wall as to throw himself on his
back, then ascending a chest which was near, wildly threw his arms
into the air and precipitated himself from it. These actions so alarmed
me for his safety that I gave up the contest, and on doing so he
evinced the greatest satisfaction at his victory, uttering for several
minutes the most expressive grunts and cries; in short, he exhibited,
on all occasions when his will was opposed, the impatient temper of a
spoilt child; but even in the height of passion I never observed any
disposition to bite or otherwise ill-treat his keeper or myself.
[Illustration: VILLAGE IN THE GABOON COUNTRY.]
“Although he would never object to be caressed or nursed by even a
stranger, yet I never saw him evince the slightest disposition to
make the acquaintance of any other animal. At the time he came into
my possession I had two Patas Monkeys, and thinking they might become
acquainted, I placed Mr. Bamboo in the same apartment, where he resided
for five months, yet I never saw the least desire on his part to become
even friendly; on the contrary, he showed evident anger and dislike at
their approach. This strange attachment to the human race, and manifest
dislike to all others, I have considered one of the most extraordinary
features of this genus. His cunning was also remarkable. On all
occasions when he thought he was unobserved, he would not fail to
steal everything within his reach, for no other apparent purpose than
to gratify a propensity for thieving; did he, however, even think you
were looking at him, he would wait his opportunity with the greatest
patience before he commenced depredation. In his habits, unlike the
Monkey tribe, he was exceedingly cleanly, never soiling his bed or
any place near it; and even on board ship (during the warm weather)
he never failed to seek the deck, unassisted, whenever time calls of
nature required it. On being left by himself in his piazza he would
invariably seat himself on the window-sill, which was the highest point
he could attain, and commanded a view of the barrack-yard as well as
the interior of my bedroom; but at sunset he would descend, enter a
washing-tub, which he had of his own accord chosen as a sleeping-place,
and remain there all night; as soon, however, as the sun rose, he would
never fail to occupy his favourite position on the window-ledge. From
this, I should say, that trees are ascended by the Chimpanzee merely
for observation or food, and that they live principally on the ground.
Bamboo, at the time of purchase, appeared to be about fourteen months
old, and from what I could learn from the natives, they do not reach
their full growth till between nine and ten years of age; which, if
true, brings them extremely near the human species, as the boy or girl
of West Africa, at thirteen or fourteen years old, is quite as much
a man or woman as those of nineteen or twenty in our more northern
clime. Their height, when full grown, is said to be between four and
five feet; indeed, I was credibly informed that a male Chimpanzee,
which had been shot in the neighbourhood and brought into Free Town,
measured four feet five inches in length, and was so heavy as to form
a very fair load for two men, who carried him on a pole between them.
The natives say that in their wild state their strength is enormous,
and that they have seen them snap boughs off the trees with the
greatest apparent ease, which the united strength of two men could
scarcely bend. The Chimpanzee is, without doubt, to be found in all the
countries, from the banks of the Gambia in the north to the kingdom
of Congo in the south, as the natives of all the intermediate parts
seem to be perfectly acquainted with them. From my own experience, I
can state that the low shores of the Bullom country, situated on the
northern shores of the river near Sierra Leone, are infested by them
in numbers quite equal to the commonest species of Monkeys. I consider
these animals to be gregarious; for when visiting the rice farms of
the Chief Dalla Mohammadoo, on the Bullom shore, their cries plainly
indicated the vicinity of a troop, as the noise heard could not have
been produced by less than eight or ten of them. The natives also
affirmed that they always travel in strong bodies, armed with sticks,
which they use with much dexterity. They are exceedingly watchful;
and the first one who discovers the approach of a stranger utters a
protracted cry, much resembling that of a human being in the greatest
distress. The first time I heard it I was much startled; the animal
was apparently not more than thirty paces distant, but had it been but
five I could not have seen it, from the tangled nature of the jungle,
and I certainly conceived that such sounds could only have proceeded
from a human being, who hoped to gain assistance by his cries from some
terrible and instant death. The native who was with me laid his hand
upon my shoulder, and pointing suspiciously to the bush, said, ‘Massa,
Baboo live there!’ and in a few minutes the wood appeared alive with
them, their cries resembling the barking of dogs. My guide informed
me that the cry first heard was to inform the troop of my approach,
and that they would all immediately leave the trees, or any exalted
situation that might expose them to view, and seek the bush; he also
showed evident fear, and entreated me not to proceed any further in
that direction. The plantations of bananas, pampaws, and plantains,
which the natives usually intermix with their rice, constituting the
favourite food of the Chimpanzee, account for their being so frequent
in the neighbourhood of rice fields. The difficulty of procuring live
specimens of this genus arises principally, I should say, from the
superstitions of the natives concerning them, who believe they possess
the power of ‘witching.’”
[Illustration: SICK ORANG-UTAN.]
A most interesting little male Chimpanzee was obtained from the natives
of the Gambia coast some years since, and became famous in London for
its great intelligence and human-like conduct. His mother was shot when
he was about a twelvemonth old, about 120 miles from the sea; and after
being well taken care of he was sent to England on board ship, where he
had a free range of the rigging and decks, and where he made himself
much liked. A distinguished zoologist, Mr. Broderip, visited him in the
Zoological Gardens after he had undergone some tuition, and describes
what he saw as follows:--
“I saw him for the first time in the kitchen belonging to the keepers’
apartments, dressed in a little Guernsey shirt, or banyan jacket. He
was sitting child-like in the lap of a good old woman, to whom he
clung whenever she made show of putting him down. His aspect was mild
and passive, but that of a little withered old man, and his large
eyes, hairless and crimpled visage, and man-like ears, surmounted by
the black hair of his head, rendered the resemblance very striking,
notwithstanding the depressed nose and the projecting mouth. He had
already become very fond of his good old nurse, and she had evidently
become attached to her nursling, although they had only been acquainted
for three or four days, and it was with difficulty that he permitted
her to go away to do her work in another part of the building. On
her lap he was perfectly at his ease, and it seemed to me that he
considered her as occupying the place of his mother. He was constantly
reaching up with his hand to the fold of her neckerchief, though when
he did so she checked him, saying, ‘No, Tommy, you must not pull the
pin out.’ When not otherwise occupied, he would sit quietly in her lap,
pulling his toes about with his fingers, with the same passive air as a
human child exhibits when amusing himself in the same manner. I wished
to examine his teeth; and when his nurse, in order to make him open his
mouth, threw him back in her arm and tickled him just as she would a
child, the caricature was complete.
“I offered him my ungloved hand. He took it mildly in his, with a
manner equally exempt from forwardness and fear, examined it with his
eyes, and perceiving a ring on one of my fingers, submitted that, and
that only, to a very cautious and gentle examination with his teeth,
so as not to leave any mark on the ring. I then offered him my other
hand with the glove on. This he felt, looked at it, turned it about,
and then tried it with his teeth. At length it became necessary for
his kind nurse to leave him, and after much remonstrance on his part
she put him on the floor. He would not leave her, however, and walked
nearly erect by her side, holding by her gown just like a child. At
last she got him away by offering him a peeled raw potato, which he
ate with great relish, holding it in his right hand. His keeper,
who is very attentive to him, then made his appearance, and spoke
to him. Tommy evidently made an attempt to speak, gesticulating as
he stood erect, protruding his lips, and making a hoarse noise like
‘hoo! hoo!’ He soon showed a disposition to play with me, jumping on
his lower extremities opposite to me like a child, and looking at me
with an expression indicating a wish for a game at romps. I confess
I complied, and a capital game we had. On another occasion, and when
he had become familiar with me, I caused, in the midst of his play,
a looking-glass to be brought and held before him. His attention was
constantly and strongly arrested: from the utmost activity he became
immovably fixed, steadfastly gazing at the mirror with eagerness, and
something like wonder depicted in his face. He at length looked up at
me, then again gazed at the glass. The tips of my fingers appeared on
one side as I held it; he put his hands and then his lips to them,
then looked behind the glass, and finally passed his hands behind
it, evidently to feel if there were anything substantial there. I
presented him with a cocoa-nut, to the shell of which some bark was
still adhering; the tender bud was just beginning to shoot forth--this
he immediately bit off and ate. He then stripped off some of the bark
with his teeth, moving it by the crust of adhering fibres round his
head, darted it down, and repeatedly jumped on it with all his weight.
A hole was bored in one of the eyes, and the nut again given to him,
and he immediately held it up with the aperture downwards, applied
his mouth to it, and sucked away at what milk there was with great
glee. As I was making notes with a paper and pencil, he came up and
looked at me inquisitively, testing the pencil with his teeth when he
had it given to him. A trial was made of the little fellow’s courage;
for when his attention was directed elsewhere, a hamper containing a
large snake, called Python, was brought in and placed on a chair near
the dresser. The lid was raised, and the basket in which the snake was
enveloped was opened, and soon after Tommy came gambolling that way. As
he jumped and danced along the dresser towards the basket he was all
gaiety and life; suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stopped, and
cautiously advanced towards the basket, peered or rather craned over
it, and constantly, with a gesture of horror and aversion and the cry
of ‘hoo! hoo!’ recoiled from the detested object, jumped back as far
as he could, and then sprang to his keeper for protection. Tommy does
not like confinement, and when he is shut up in his cage, the violence
with which he pulls at and shakes the door is very great, and shows
considerable strength; but I have never seen him use this exertion
against any other part of the cage, though his keeper has endeavoured
to induce him to do so, in order to see whether he would make the
distinction. When at liberty he is extremely playful; and in his high
jinks, I saw him toddle into a corner where an unlucky bitch was lying
with a litter of very young pups, and lay hold of one of them, till the
snarling of the mother and the cries of the keeper made him put the pup
down. He then climbed up to the top of the cage where the Marmosets
were, and jumped furiously upon it, evidently to astonish the inmates,
who huddled together, looking up at the dreadful creature over their
heads. Then he went to a window, opened it and looked out. I was afraid
that he might make his escape; but the words ‘Tommy, No!’ pronounced by
the keeper in a mild but firm tone, caused him to shut the window and
to come away. He is, in truth, a most docile and affectionate animal,
and it is impossible not to be taken with the expressive gestures and
looks with which he courts your good opinion, and throws himself upon
you for protection against annoyance.”
Whether they grow cross and savage as they get old is not known, for
no adults have been kept in captivity, but as this is usual in other
Monkeys, it is probable that their interesting time of life is that of
childhood, and that when the age of fun and tricks has passed there is
not much else but brutality left.
Little or nothing reliable is known about the habits of the adults, and
all the wickednesses of Gorillas and Baboons have been attributed to
them, and, in fact, the very same stories will do for any one of them.
These stories have, however, been believed; and even Cuvier, the great
comparative anatomist, wrote, that the Chimpanzees live in troops,
construct themselves huts of leaves, arm themselves with sticks and
stones, and employ these weapons to drive away men and Elephants from
their dwellings. They did not, he believed, scruple to attack the Lion,
and they were exceedingly impolite to negresses in general.
As they all, except possibly the Soko, live in a district where the
forests are dense and close, there is no doubt they are rarely seen;
and indeed reliable travellers do not hesitate to say that a white man
has never seen them in a state of nature, except by obtaining a glance
as they rush off on being surprised. All the stories must, therefore,
be received with suspicion, as tainted with the results of African
fear and love of the wonderful; especially as they come from the negro
race living in the remarkable tract of country extending along the
West Coast from the river Gambia to some distance north of Angola, and
thence into the interior to the little known regions between the hills
which run parallel with the sea many miles inland, and the country of
the large lakes far away to the East.
Gifted with wonderful agility and no little power of imitation and
intelligence, and possessed of very acute senses and ability to
unite the actions of many groups of muscles to a common purpose, the
Chimpanzee must have a well-formed nervous system--that is to say, a
good brain and spinal cord. A brain to originate or commence actions,
and the cord of nerves to carry the orders of the brain to the limbs.
Measured over the brain case of the skull, that of the Chimpanzee has
a bulk of about one-half of that of man, and less than that of the
Gorilla; but the brain itself has striking resemblances to that of
man. The principal folds which are noticed on the human brain exist
in the Chimpanzee, but they are simpler in their foldings, and are
large in proportion to the whole. This means that there is not as much
nerve structure packed in a given space as there is in man; and the
distinction is most important, for the greater the packing the greater
the nervous energy and power. But the parts of the brain which have
especially to do with the movements of the body, and their regulations
and adaptations, are very well formed; and it is the comparative
deficiency in those parts which have a mysterious relation with the
intelligence, instinct, and the mind which causes the brain of the
Chimpanzee to differ in appearance and size from that of man. But in
both the brain proper over-laps and covers the cerebellum or little
brain. The nerves are well formed and large.
It seems that the brain of the Chimpanzee never has a chance of
increasing in size, for after a certain age the bones of the brain case
become, as it were, soldered together.
The Chimpanzee has a famous pair of shoulders, a broad back, and, like
the Gorilla, a very short neck. Its weight is less than that of the
greatest of Apes, and therefore it does not require such huge muscles
for climbing. The great bony spines of the neck-bones are smaller; and
the bones of the upper part of the spine are not made as strongly.
Loving much to hang by the hands, with the arms stretched out above the
head, the Chimpanzee has the blade-bone more like that of an ordinary
Monkey, and less like that of man and the Gorilla, and its muscles are
so placed as to permit of their acting readily when this position is
kept up. As this position is extremely easy and useful, it is assisted
by the animal’s having a short and stout collar-bone. Its arm-bone is
tolerably near the length of that of man, but it is like a Gorilla’s
in miniature. The bones of the fore-arm (the radius and ulna), instead
of being shorter than the arm-bone, equal it in length, and the last
named is much bent, so as to give a large surface for the muscles which
supply the hand and wrist.
As a whole, the hand of the Chimpanzee is, in proportion to the size of
the animal, larger than that of the Gorilla, but the thumb is shorter,
and this makes it more Monkey-like than human; and the same may be said
of the lower limbs, for the thigh-bone and those of the leg, although
greatly resembling those of the Gorilla, have many peculiarities which
make them resemble those of the less important Monkeys. Finally, with
regard to the foot, that of the Chimpanzee is more Monkeyish than that
of the Gorilla. The great Ape’s foot has many peculiarities which make
it differ from that of man, and these are all magnified, as it were, in
the Chimpanzee, whose foot, therefore, is all the more unlike ours. It
is especially adapted for grasping and climbing, and less well suited
for occasionally standing erect and walking. Its heel is short and
slender, and the toe-thumb is smaller, and the whole foot is slenderer,
than the Gorilla’s. Moreover, it is more turned in.
When young, there are no crests on the head, but with age a small one
grows on each side in front, running from about the centre of each side
of the brow ridge over the receding forehead, and joining together in
the middle line, close to the top of the skull. This meets a larger
and stronger one, which is a miniature of the head crest of the
Gorilla, and which reaches from ear to ear. The use is probably for the
attachment of the masticating muscles at the side, and for that of the
muscles of the neck behind; but it is also a kind of ornament of the
males.
Strong as this Ape is in its loins, from its extra ribs, the hip-bones
seem narrow from side to side; and one of the causes of this is
interesting, not only because it is also noticed in the other great
Apes, but also because it is one of their marked distinctions from man.
The pieces of the back-bone (or vertebræ), as they pass between the
hip-bones behind, unite them together, and degenerate until they form
the curious little tail-end of the back-bone, which in us, and in the
Apes, is curled slightly, with the concave part of the bend forward.
The pieces unite strongly to each other above and below, and form
really one bone, which is called the sacrum. Now, if these pieces were
nearly or quite as stout and broad as those higher up, the hips would
be wide apart; but if they become narrow, the hips will be all the
closer together. In man, the pieces are broad, and the sacrum, as a
whole, is so also, and the hips are widely separate; but the reverse is
the case in the Apes.
[Illustration: BRAIN OF CHIMPANZEE.]
This difference in the breadth of the bone and the width of the hip
has evidently to do with the maintenance of the erect posture in man,
and the inability to keep erect for long, and comfortably, by these
great Apes. The larger the surface of the sacrum, the greater is the
mass of muscle passing to the back and downwards; and this is small in
comparison in the Chimpanzee.
Where the proper vertebræ of the sacrum end--that is to say, the pieces
of the back-bone which are placed between the hip (ilium) bones--the
tail begins. It is made up of three stunted bones, which are something
like ill-made back-bone pieces (vertebræ); they are usually inseparably
joined together to make a special bone, which is broad above, and
tapering below. This bone, the rudiment of the tail, which, from some
fancied resemblance to a Cuckoo’s back, has been called the cuckoo-bone
(_os coccygis_), is covered by skin and embedded in muscles, which
do not allow it to stick out visibly even as a stump; for its tip
is curled inwards. This apology for the member which is so vastly
important in many Monkeys is narrow in the man-like Apes, the black
Chimpanzee included; but it is a little wider in man, although the
general construction is the same. Could these bones--which, by their
being united, form this rudiment of a tail--be disunited and increased
in number, stuck out, and covered with skin and muscles, something like
the very Monkey-like appendage would be formed. But noble tails are
not the gifts of the higher Apes, as they are called, from their many
points of resemblance in structure with man, and even in the smaller
Monkeys they are extremely variable belongings, being given to one kind
and not to another in a manner far beyond our philosophy.
The Chimpanzee has a long palate, like the other great Apes of the West
African woods. Moreover, it has a uvula in the back of the throat, and
the back of the tongue is marked with great papillæ, which take up the
shape of a T. It does not do more than grunt “hem,” and bark after a
fashion; and the use of some great air-pouches, which resemble those of
the Gorilla, are therefore not very apparent. But the bony structures
of the palate are interesting, for at the back of it they do not form a
simple knob, as in the Gorilla, but resemble those of man, and there is
a little prominence, with a festoon curve on each side.
It lives upon vegetable food, and its teeth are admirably suited for
it; they are of the same number as those of the rest of the great
man-shaped Apes, and do not differ very much from them. The front
teeth are large, and project, and do not bite very up and down on the
tips, so they wear behind quicker than in front, their general shape
being rather peculiar and distinctive. Female Chimpanzees have smaller
eye-teeth than the males, and all have them with a sharp edge behind,
so that they can cut a pine-apple as well as pierce it. Behind them
are the pre-and true molars, but the last tooth of the upper jaw looks
small, for its hinder projections or cusps are small. In the lower jaw
the last tooth has a fifth cusp, but it is smaller proportionately than
in the lower Monkeys; and the first pre-molar has its front and outer
angle stuck out very much after the fashion of the Baboons. Now these
are little matters, which do not appear to have anything to do with
causes and effects, the adaptation of means to ends, or which do not
enable the creature to chew and crush its food a bit the less well,
or better than others; they refer to some hidden mystery which unites
apparently very different animals together in the scheme of creation.
Thus the Chimpanzee has human-like, Gorilla-like, Baboon-like, and
other Monkey-like peculiarities, so far as the teeth are concerned, and
yet which do not interfere with the successful mastication of the food.
We may make theories about them of supreme interest, which may explain
why animals are alike and unlike, and how the structures of superior
animals were foreshadowed in those of lower ones, and the structures of
the latter in those of still simpler forms of life.
It is the great front teeth, the large space hidden by the visible
nose, the prominent upper, and the great length of the lower jaw, which
give such a Baboon-like appearance to the face of the Chimpanzee’s
skull; and this is interesting, for there may have been a kinship
between the two tribes.
These man-shaped Apes, the Gorilla, the Nschiego Mbouvé, the
Koolo-Kamba, the Soko, and the Chimpanzee, form a group of beings which
is peculiarly situated geographically, and which is separated from all
others by anatomical differences. Their home is in Equatorial Africa,
from the Western Sea to the Great Lakes near the eastern side of the
Continent, and none of the kinds composing it have ever been found out
of this range. Their bones have not been found in caves or in the state
of fossils anywhere, so they must be regarded as essentially African.
The group clings to forest and jungle, and its members lead very much
the same kind of lives, for they are all vegetarians, liking quietude,
and either roaming singly or in pairs, or living in troops. There is
no evidence whatever that any of these species of Troglodytes have
ever wandered; and it must be admitted that they have lived where they
are now found ever since the country has been as it is, as regards its
physical geography and peculiar climate. As regards their anatomical
distinctness from other beings, they may be separated from man on the
one hand, and from the Monkeys, which form the subject of the next
chapters, on the other. They are linked together as a group by many
resemblances in their construction, although there are differences
enough to distinguish kind from kind. From man they one and all differ
in the shape of the head, the size of the brain case, the nature of the
palate, the shape of the jaws, and in the last lower molar teeth and
tooth-spaces. Their head-ridges, the shape and length of their limbs,
and the nature of their thumbs and toe-thumbs are very distinctive.
The great air-pouches, the shape of the chest, the extra ribs, and the
shape of the hip-girdle, cause them to differ much from man; and their
brain is, as it were, dwarfed and infantile.[13]