THE OTHER APES OF THE GREAT FOREST—OSHORIA TELLS ABOUT THE NSHIEGO
MBOUVÉS—CAPTURE OF A BABY “MAN OF THE WOODS”—HIS MOTHER
KILLED—CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIFFERENT APES WITH THE VARIOUS HUMAN
RACES.
The next evening the slaves again made their appearance, and to amuse
them I told them again to fill their pipes, and lighted them with my
matches, to their great delight. While they were smoking I said: “I
heard yesterday about the strong and fierce ngina. Tell me this evening
something about the nshiego, nshiego mbouvé, nshiego kengo, and
kooloo-kamba. Tell me how you can distinguish the different kinds among
these ‘men of the woods,’ as you call them.”
“We easily recognize each kind,” replied Oshoria, for he was again to be
the spokesman. “I will tell first of the nshiego mbouvé. He is far from
being as tall and powerful as the ngina. The nshiego mbouvé is the
bald-headed man of the woods—he is born with thin hair on his head, but
as he grows older the hair drops off entirely. He is the only one
amongst the nshiegos that becomes bald. But, Oguizi, the nshiego mbouvé
when very young has a face whiter and paler than yours—though his mother
and father are as black as the blackest among us. Strange to say, as the
baby nshiego mbouvé grows older, his pale face grows darker and darker,
and after a time comes to be as black as that of his father and mother.
“But, Oguizi,” added Oshoria, with emphasis, “they are so shy that it is
very difficult to approach them. The best way is to discover their
shelter and lie in wait for them.”
After a pause, he said: “The nshiego kengo is born pale yellow, and has
a pale face also; the blood does not go through its skin, as your blood
does through yours; no matter how warm they are, how much they have run,
they always remain pale. The nshiego mbouvé and the nshiego kengo are
more intelligent than the ngina. They make a shelter for themselves on
trees, about five or six arms’ lengths from the ground. There they rest
at night, as they are afraid of the leopards. The ‘man’ has one shelter,
the ‘woman’ another, on two different trees close together. They do not
attack men, and run away at the least noise.
“Then comes the kooloo-kamba, another kind of nshiego. This kind is very
rare. He is different from the nshiego mbouvé and nshiego kengo. He is
born black. We call him kooloo-kamba because his cry is ‘kooloo-kooloo.’
“Then comes the last of the men of the woods, and the most numerous
species. He goes by the name of nshiego. He is born pale-faced and
gradually becomes black. He also is very intelligent. We can tame easily
all the species of young nshiegos, and we capture them by killing their
mothers when we find them together.
“The reason we call all this kind of ‘men of the woods’ ‘nshiego’ is
because they are much alike in some respects: they all have elongated
hands with long fingers, and long and narrow feet. All nshiegos have big
ears, too, while the ngina has very small ears and much shorter hands
and feet. All the nginas and the nshiegos are tailless; they have a
spine, like man. The nshiegos spend much of their time on trees; they
are great tree-climbers—that is the reason that they have long hands and
fingers. With these they readily seize the branches of trees; their feet
are also on that account more flexible than those of the ngina.”
When Oshoria had done speaking about all the “men of the woods” found in
this great African forest, I thought of the strange orang-outangs, which
I had seen alive at home in New York and Boston, and how wonderfully
human they looked, with their high foreheads. These also live in big
forests in the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. They are another kind of
“men of the woods,” without tails. “How strange it is,” I said to
myself, “that amongst the ‘men of the woods,’ there are three colors, as
with human beings. The orang-outang has hair that is brown and a face of
almost the same color, and corresponds to the brown races. The nshiego
kengo has somewhat the color of the white man, and the ngina and the
kooloo-kamba have that of the black man.”
Two days after our conversation about the nshiegos I heard a great
uproar near Regundo’s house, just as I was emerging from the forest
after my morning’s hunting. I saw a big crowd of slaves, and heard loud
exclamations of astonishment, and the words “nshiego mbouvé” and “baby
nshiego mbouvé.” I hurried up and saw Regundo, Oshoria, Ogoola, Ngola,
and Quabi coming to meet me. They said: “Oguizi, we have killed a
nshiego mbouvé and captured her baby, which is alive and well. Come and
see them.” Soon after I stood by the side of the dead nshiego mbouvé,
which was perfectly black, and looked with wonder at the very white face
of the baby nshiego mbouvé. I thought I had never seen amongst wild
creatures such a human face as I did in that little old face of the
baby; he looked so pale that one might have thought he had just left a
sick bed or the hospital. He crept over the body of his mother and
moaned, “Whoe, whoe,” as if he were a human being. It was his mode of
crying. He knew that his mother was dead.
In the evening Oshoria and the slaves assembled and we talked about
nshiego mbouvés and the other “men of the woods.” Pointing to the little
nshiego mbouvé fast asleep on a bed of dry leaves, Oshoria said: “The
pale-faced nshiego mbouvé and the other ‘men of the woods’ have in many
respects better luck than we poor black men have. They have not to work
hard as we do, they have not to dig the ground, to cut down the trees of
the forest, to sow or to plant, in order to live. If we did not do this
we should die of hunger. Food grows of itself for them in the forest;
they can always find something to eat. It is true that there is the race
of pigmies, who are human beings like us and live chiefly, like the ‘men
of the woods,’ on the nuts, berries, and fruits of the forest and do not
plant or sow anything, but then the pigmies can trap game and exchange
it with the big people for plantains. They know the use of fire and cook
their food.
“These ‘men of the woods’ do not have to go into the forest and collect
firewood; they do not have to carry big loads on their backs; they do
not have to cook food. There are a number of things we can do and they
cannot. They cannot make fire. They cannot make intoxicating drinks and
get drunk. They cannot smoke. They have no idols, no ‘mondahs,’ no
witchcraft. They do not sell each other into slavery. They do not beat
their mates, as we do our wives.
“These ‘men of the woods’ look so much like human beings that there are
tribes of men who do not eat them, for to them it would seem like eating
people. But there are many tribes who eat them, just as there are tribes
of men who eat people as they eat game.
“The monkeys,” he continued, “are the relations of the ‘men of the
woods.’ What human faces they have! When they are travelling in the
woods, they have their leaders and follow them. They all understand each
other. When we walk in the forest, they look down upon us as if they
were human beings. When we shoot and kill them with our bows and arrows,
they look at us with their dying eyes as if to say: ‘Why did you hurt
me? Have I ever done you any harm?’ But how angry they look when in
captivity if we do something that does not please them. Strange to say,
Oguizi, we can trap monkeys, but can never trap the ‘men of the woods.’
I do not know that a ‘man of the woods’ has ever been caught in a trap.
“Oguizi, do you remember this morning, how the baby nshiego mbouvé
moaned after his mother,—how he walked over her dead body; he knew that
she was dead.
“There is a great difference between the baby human being and the baby
of a nshiego mbouvé and of the other ‘men of the woods.’ Almost as soon
as a baby of the ‘men of the woods’ is born, his fingers can clutch and
cling to his mother. Our babies cannot; they are helpless.”
It was late when our talk ended. The slaves rose and bade me good-night.
The dear slaves were my only companions.