HUNT FOR GORILLAS.—A LARGE ONE SHOT.—THE NEGROES MAKE CHARMS OF HIS
BRAIN.—MOURNING IN A BAKALAI TOWN.
I am in the densest part of the jungle!
What am I doing in that jungle, armed to the teeth, and loaded with
provisions?
If you could have looked closely you would have seen three black men
with me. They also were armed to the teeth and were loaded with
provisions. Their bodies were painted and they were covered with
warfetiches; and if they thought their fetiches had any power it was
time to wear them, for if we were not going to make war with man, we
were to hunt and try to meet the terrible and ferocious gorilla.
Yes, we were in fighting trim, and we intended to remain in the forest
as long as our provisions would hold out.
I had my best gun with me, which had been loaded in the most careful
manner that very morning. My three men, Miengai, Makinda, and Yeava, had
also loaded their guns, which were flint-locks. They had loaded them
tremendously, and instead of lead bullets had rammed down four or five
pieces of iron bar or rough broken castiron pieces, making the whole
charge eight or ten fingers deep.
[Sidenote: _AFTER GORILLAS._]
The country was very rough, hilly, and densely crowded with trees, and
under the trees the jungle was almost impassable, consequently our
hunting could hardly be counted sport, for we had to work fearfully hard
and with the greatest care; but I felt strong, for I had rested for two
or three days and the fever had let me alone.
We saw several gorilla tracks, and about noon divided our party in the
hope of surrounding the resting-place of one whose tracks were very
plain. I had scarcely got away from my party when I heard a report of a
gun, then of three more going off one after the other. Of course I ran
back as fast as I could, hoping to see a dead animal before me, but was
disappointed: my Mbondemo fellows had fired at a female, and had wounded
her, as I saw by the clots of blood which marked her tracks, but she had
made good her escape. We set out in pursuit; but these woods were too
thick, she knew their depths better than we did, and could go through
them much faster.
I was greatly disappointed. This was the second time I had seen gorillas
and they had run away.
I had heard of the fierce courage of the gorilla and his attacking man.
I began to believe that all that had been told me was untrue; and said
so to Miengai, who for sole answer said—“We have not yet seen a man
gorilla. The mother gorilla does not fight.”
Night came upon us as we were still beating the bush, and it was
determined a little before sunset to camp by the side of a beautiful
stream of clear water and to try our luck the next day. We had shot some
monkeys and two beautiful guinea-fowls. After our fire had been lit the
men roasted their monkey-meat over the coals; I roasted my birds before
the blaze on a stick. I was very hungry and enjoyed them.
Then I fixed my two fires in such a way that they would last for a long
time. I laid between them, and instead of a roof of leaves I made one
with the bark of trees, and soon fell asleep; but the _roars_ of the
leopards and the dismal cries of the owls awoke me several times.
We started early the next day, not discouraged, and pushed for the most
dense and impenetrable part of the forest, for there, in those deep
recesses, we hoped we might find a gorilla. Hour after hour we
travelled, and yet no signs of gorillas—we had hardly met a track. We
could only hear at long intervals the little chattering of monkeys, and
occasionally of birds. The solitude was grand, the silence profound, so
much so that we could hear our panting breath as we ascended hill after
hill. I was beginning to despair.
Suddenly Miengai uttered a little _cluck_ with his tongue, which is the
native’s way of showing that something is stirring, and that a sharp
lookout is necessary; in a word, to keep ourselves on our guard, or that
danger was surrounding us. Presently I noticed, ahead of us seemingly, a
noise as of some one breaking down branches or twigs of trees.
We stopped and came close together. I knew at once by the eager and
excited looks of the men that it was a gorilla. They looked once more
carefully at their guns, to see if by any chance the powder had fallen
out of the pans; I also examined mine, to make sure that all was right,
and then we marched on cautiously.
[Sidenote: _AN ENORMOUS GORILLA._]
The singular noise of the breaking of the branches continued. We walked
with the greatest care, making no noise at all. The countenances of the
men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious
undertaking; but we pushed on, until I thought I could see through the
woods the moving of the branches and small trees which the great beast
was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and fruits he
lives on.
I remember how close we were to each other.
Suddenly, as we were still creeping along, in a silence which made a
heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with
the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla.
Then the underbrush swayed rapidly ahead, and presently there stood
before us an immense male gorilla. He had come through the jungle on
all-fours, to see who dared to disturb him; but when he saw our party he
stood up and looked us boldly in the face. He stood about a dozen yards
from us, and it was a sight I shall never forget. He looked so big!
Nearly six feet high, with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular
arms, with fiercely-glaring, large, deep, gray eyes, and a hellish
expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision. Thus
stood before me the king of the African forest.
How black his face was!
He was not afraid of us. He stood there, and beat his breast with his
huge fists till it resounded like an immense bass drum, which is their
mode of offering defiance; meantime giving vent to roar after roar.
This roar was the most singular and awful noise I had ever heard in
these African forests. It began with a sharp _bark_, like that of an
angry dog; then glided into a deep bass _roll_ which literally and
closely resembled the roll of distant thunder along the sky. I have
heard the lion roar, but greater, deeper, and more fearful is the roar
of the gorilla. So deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the
mouth and throat than from the deep chest and vast paunch of the beast.
The earth was literally shaking under my feet as he roared, and for a
while I knew not where I was. Was it an apparition from the infernal
regions? Was I asleep or not? I was soon reminded that it was not a
dream.
I said quietly to myself—“Du Chaillu, if you do not kill this gorilla,
as sure as you are born he will kill you.”
His eyes began to flash fierce fire as we stood motionless on the
defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead
began to twitch rapidly up and down and was perfectly frightful to look
at. His powerful fangs, or enormous canines, were shown as he again sent
forth a thunderous roar: the red inside of his mouth contrasted
singularly with his intensely black face.
And now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hellish
dream-creature—a being of that hideous order, half man, half beast,
which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the
infernal regions; but nothing they ever painted could approach this
horrid monster in ugliness.
He advanced a few steps in a waddling way, for his short legs seemed
incapable of supporting his huge body; then stopped to utter that
hideous roar again—advanced again, and finally stopped when at a
distance of five or six yards from us. And then—as he extended his arms
as though ready to clutch us, and just as he began another of his
frightful roars, beating his breast with rage—what a huge hand he had!—I
fired, and killed him.
[Illustration: FIERCE ATTACK OF A GORILLA.]
[Sidenote: _THE GORILLA IS SHOT._]
With a groan that had something terribly human in it, and yet was full
of brutishness, he fell forward on his face like a man when he is struck
by a bullet in the chest. He shook convulsively for a few minutes, his
limbs moved about in a struggling way, the tremor of the muscles ceased,
and then all was quiet—death had done its work.
The monster was hardly dead when I suddenly began to tremble all over,
my lower jaw met my upper one in a way I did not like at all, and my men
looked at me with their mouths wide open in perfect amazement. They
could hardly believe their eyes, but having recovered themselves, they
asked me what was the matter. I answered that I did not know, and that I
had asked myself the same question.
For fifteen minutes my jaws went on cracking against each other, and the
more I tried to stop them the more they chattered. I felt awfully
mortified; but there was no help for it.
I said—“Next time you will see; I shall not do it again.” I kept my
word, but I never met a large male gorilla without thinking that it
might be the last of me.
There was great rejoicing, but it did not last long, for they soon began
to quarrel about the apportionment of the meat. They really eat the
creature, and the Fans told me that next to the flesh of man the gorilla
meat was the best. It looked wonderfully like beef, only it seemed to be
almost wholly composed of muscle.
I saw that they would come to blows presently if I did not interfere;
hence I said that if they were going to fight I would join in; and
taking the butt-end of my gun, I said I would smash the heads of the
three while they were fighting with each other.
This saying of mine at once made them laugh and they became quiet. They
knew that I meant what I said, and they did not fancy getting a
thrashing.
The subject of the quarrel was about the brain of the gorilla. Miengai
said he would have the whole of it, for he was the oldest. What would
they have known about the spirit pointing out to me if it had not been
for him? He said this with such complacency and self-satisfaction that I
could not help smiling; but this argument of Miengai did not seem to
satisfy Makinda and Yeava.
So I said I would give part of the brain to each of them, and when they
had it they wrapped it most carefully in leaves, and I was told that
_monda_ (charms) were to be made of this—charms of two kinds. Prepared
in one way, and mixed with bone, claws, feathers, ashes of certain
beasts, birds, and trees, the charm would give the wearer a strong hand
for the hunt, after he had rubbed his hands and arms with the mixture.
Prepared another way it gave the wearer success with women; he became
irresistible, and all the pretty girls were willing to become his wives.
I could not help thinking that if that latter charm was real, how much
bachelors and widowers would like to possess it at home where pretty
girls are so difficult to please.
My men in the evening fed on the gorilla meat, and I fed on the meat of
a small and beautiful little gazelle which Makinda had killed.
[Sidenote: _THE PEOPLE SCARED._]
The blazing fires shed their light through the beautiful forest, and I
went to sleep happy: but during the night I awoke, uttering a tremendous
shout which made my men laugh, for they had been up for some time in
order to eat a little more of the gorilla meat. I had the nightmare, and
had dreamed that I was pursued by half a dozen gorillas, and when I gave
that awful shriek I had just fancied that one of these monsters was
clutching me and was going to carry me away to the forest.
We were tired and worn out, but at last we reached a deserted village
which we had found before our hunting and where we had our camp. Judge
of our astonishment when I found the place in possession of a division
of travelling Bakalais! The village was full of them: men, women,
children and babies were there; they had quantities of food; all their
baggage, composed of old baskets, cooking-pots, calabashes, mats; and
all their farming implements. The men were all armed.
My apparition among them threw them into the utmost confusion, and if I
had not been followed by Miengai, who shouted to them to keep still,
they would have fled; but after a while we were great friends,
especially after I had distributed a few beads among the women.
They had been living on the banks of a river called Noya, and were
moving far from that place toward another village where the old chief
had two or three sons-in-law and the same number of fathers-in-law.
These people seemed to be in dread of something. They seemed to be in
retreat, as though they had fled from their former place of abode.
I learned that, a few days before, one of their men while bathing in the
river had been killed by some unknown enemy. Hereupon they were seized
with a panic, believed their village attacked by witches, that the
Aniemba witchcraft was among them, and they must abandon it and settle
elsewhere or they would all die one after the other.
Just a little before sunset I saw every one of them retire within doors;
the children ceased to play, and all became very quiet in the camp,
where just before there was so much noise and bustle. Then suddenly
arose on the air one of those mournful, heart-piercing chants which you
hear among all the tribes of this land. It was a chant for one of their
departed friends. As they sang, tears rolled down the cheeks of the
women, fright distorted their faces and cowed their spirits.
I listened and tried to gather the words of their chants. There was a
very monotonous repetition of one idea—that of sorrow at the departure
from among them of one of their friends and fellow-villagers.
Thus they sang:
_We chi noli lubella pe na beshe_
“Oh, you will never speak to us any more,
We can not see your face any more;
You will never walk with us again,
You will never settle our palavers for us.”
And so on.
They sang until the sun had disappeared below the horizon, till the orb
that gives gladness to the heart and life to the world had gone from
sight, and they chose the time of its disappearance to pour out their
mourning-songs. I thought there was something very poetical in the
relationship of the time to the subject. For what should we do without
the sun? It is the very heart of life!
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]