THE FANS--_Concluded_.
CANNIBALISM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT AMONG THE FANS -- NATIVE IDEAS ON THE
SUBJECT -- EXCHANGE OF BODIES BETWEEN VILLAGES -- ATTACK ON A TOWN
AND ROBBERY OF THE GRAVES -- MATRIMONIAL CUSTOMS -- BARGAINING FOR A
WIFE -- COPPER “NEPTUNES” -- THE MARRIAGE FEAST -- RELIGION OF THE
FANS -- THE IDOL HOUSES -- LOVE OF AMULETS -- DANCE IN HONOR OF THE
NEW MOON -- PLAYING THE HANDJA -- ELEPHANTS CAUGHT BY THE FETISH --
PROBABLE CHARACTER OF THE “FETISH” IN QUESTION -- THE GORILLA AND ITS
HABITS -- A GORILLA HUNT BY THE FANS -- USE OF THE SKULL.
The preceding story naturally brings us to the chief characteristic of
the Fans,--namely, their cannibalism.
Some tribes where this custom is practised are rather ashamed
of it, and can only be induced to acknowledge it by cautious
cross-questioning. The Fans, however, are not in the least ashamed
of it, and will talk of it with perfect freedom--at least until they
see that their interlocutor is shocked by their confession. Probably
on this account missionaries have found some difficulty in extracting
information on the subject. Their informants acknowledged that human
flesh was eaten by their tribe, but not in their village. Then, as soon
as they had arrived at the village in which cannibalism was said to
exist, the inhabitants said that the travellers had been misinformed.
Certainly their tribe did eat human flesh, but no one in their village
did so. But, if they wanted to see cannibalism, they must go back to
the village from which they had just come, and there they would find it
in full force.
Knowing this peculiarity, Mr. W. Reade took care to ask no questions
on the subject until he had passed through all the places previously
visited by white men, and then questioned an old and very polite
cannibal. His answers were plain enough. Of course they all ate men.
He ate men himself. Man’s flesh was very good, and was “like monkey,
all fat.” He mostly ate prisoners of war, but some of his friends ate
the bodies of executed wizards, a food of which he was rather afraid,
thinking that it might disagree with him.
He would not allow that he ate his own relations when they died,
although such a statement is made, and has not as yet been disproved.
Some travellers say that the Fans do not eat people of their own
village, but live on terms of barter with neighboring villages,
amicably exchanging their dead for culinary purposes. The Oshebas,
another cannibal tribe of the same country, keep up friendly relations
with the Fans, and exchange the bodies of the dead with them. The
bodies of slaves are also sold for the pot, and are tolerably cheap, a
dead slave costing, on the average, one small elephant’s tusk.
The friendly Fan above mentioned held, in common with many of his dark
countrymen, the belief that all white men were cannibals. “These,” said
a Bakalai slave, on first beholding a white man, “are the men that eat
us!” So he asked Mr. Reade why the white men take the trouble to send
to Africa for negroes, when they could eat as many white men as they
liked in their own land. His interlocutor having an eye to the possible
future, discreetly answered that they were obliged to do so, _because
the flesh of white men was deadly poison_, with which answer the worthy
cannibal was perfectly satisfied.
Just before M. du Chaillu came among the Fans a strange and wild
incident had occurred. It has already been mentioned that the Fans
have been for some years pushing their way westward, forming part of
the vast stream of human life that continually pours over the great
mountain wall which divides Central Africa from the coast tribes. After
passing through various districts, and conquering their inhabitants,
they came upon a village of the Mpongwé, and, according to their wont,
attacked it. The Mpongwé were utterly incapable of resisting these
warlike and ferocious invaders, and soon fled from their homes, leaving
them in the hands of the enemy. The reader may find an illustration of
this scene on the next page.
The Fans at once engaged in their favorite pastime of plunder, robbing
every hut that they could find, and, when they had cleared all the
houses, invading the burial-grounds, and digging up the bodies of the
chiefs for the sake of the ornaments, weapons, and tools which are
buried with them.
They had filled two canoes with their stolen treasures when they came
upon a grave containing a newly-buried body. This they at once exhumed,
and, taking it to a convenient spot under some mangrove trees, lighted
a fire, and cooked the body in the very pots which they had found in
the same grave with it. The reader will remember that the Mpongwé tribe
bury with the bodies of their principal men the articles which they
possessed in life, and that a chief’s grave is therefore a perfect
treasure house.
All bodies, however, are not devoured, those of the kings and great
chiefs being buried together with their best apparel and most valuable
ornaments.
The matrimonial customs of the Fans deserve a brief notice. The reader
may remember that, as a general rule, the native African race is not a
prolific one--at all events in its own land, though, when imported to
other countries as slaves, the Africans have large families. Children
are greatly desired by the native tribes because they add to the
dignity of the parent, and the lack of children is one of the reasons
why polygamy is so universally practised; and, as a rule, a man has
more wives than children. Yet the Fans offered a remarkable exception
to this rule, probably on account of the fact that they do not marry
until their wives have fairly arrived at woman’s estate. They certainly
betroth their female children at a very early age, often as soon as
they are born, but the actual marriage does not take place until the
child has become a woman, and in the meantime the betrothed girl
remains with her parents, and is not allowed that unrestricted license
which prevails among so many of the African tribes.
This early betrothal is a necessity, as the price demanded for a wife
is a very heavy one, and a man has to work for a long time before he
can gather sufficient property for the purchase. Now that the Fans have
forced themselves into the trading parts of the country, “trader’s
goods” are the only articles that the father will accept in return for
his daughter; and, as those goods are only to be bought with ivory, the
Fan bridegroom has to kill a great number of elephants before he can
claim his wife.
Bargaining for a wife is often a very amusing scene (see illustration
on next page), especially if the father has been sufficiently sure of
his daughter’s beauty to refrain from betrothing her as a child, and
to put her up, as it were, to auction when she is nearly old enough to
be married. The dusky suitor dresses himself in his best apparel, and
waits on the father, in order to open the negotiation.
His business is, of course, to depreciate the beauty of the girl, to
represent that, although she may be very pretty as a child of eleven or
twelve, she will have fallen off in her good looks when she is a mature
woman of fourteen or fifteen. The father, on the contrary, extols the
value of his daughter, speaks slightingly of the suitor as a man quite
beneath his notice, and forthwith sets a price on her that the richest
warrior could not hope to pay. Copper and brass pans, technically
called “neptunes,” are the chief articles of barter among the Fans,
who, however, do not use them for cooking, preferring for this purpose
their own clay pots, but merely for a convenient mode of carrying a
certain weight of precious metal. Anklets and armlets of copper are
also much valued, and so are white beads, while of late years the
abominable “trade-guns” have become indispensable. At last, after
multitudinous arguments on both sides, the affair is settled, and the
price of the girl agreed upon. Part is generally paid at the time by
way of earnest, and the bridegroom promises to pay the remainder when
he comes for his wife.
As soon as the day of the wedding is fixed, the bridegroom and his
friends begin to make preparations for the grand feast with which they
are expected to entertain a vast number of guests. Some of them go off
and busy themselves in hunting elephants, smoking and drying the flesh,
and preserving the tusks for sale. Others prepare large quantities of
manioc bread and plantains, while others find a congenial occupation in
brewing great quantities of palm wine. Hunters are also engaged for the
purpose of keeping up the supply of meat.
When the day is fixed, all the inhabitants of the village assemble,
and the bride is handed over to her husband, who has already paid her
price. Both are, of course, dressed in their very best. The bride
wears, as is the custom among unmarried females, nothing but red
paint and as many ornaments as she can manage to procure. Her hair is
decorated with great quantities of white beads, and her wrists and
ankles are hidden under a profusion of brass and copper rings. The
bridegroom oils his body until his skin shines like a mirror, blackens
and polishes his well-filed teeth, adorns his head with a tuft of
brightly colored feathers, and ties round his waist the handsomest skin
which he possesses.
[Illustration: (1.) ATTACK ON A MPONGWÉ VILLAGE. (See page 536.)]
[Illustration: (2.) BARGAINING FOR A WIFE. (See page 536.)]
A scene of unrestrained jollity then commences. The guests, sometimes
several hundred in number, keep up the feast for three or four days in
succession, eating elephants’ flesh, drinking palm wine, and dancing,
until the powers of nature are quite exhausted, and then sleeping for
an hour or two with the happy facility that distinguishes the native
African. Awaking from their brief slumber, they begin the feast afresh,
and after the first few hours scarcely one of the guests is sober, or
indeed is expected to be so. At last, however, all the wine is drunk,
and then the guests return to an involuntary state of sobriety.
We now come to the religion and superstitions of the Fan tribe. As far
as they have any real worship they are idolaters. Each village has a
huge idol, specially dedicated to the service of the family or clan of
which the inhabitants of the village are composed, and at certain times
the whole family assemble together at the idol house or temple, and
then go through their acts of worship, which consist chiefly of dancing
and singing. Around each of the temples are placed a number of skulls
of wild animals, among which the gorilla takes the most conspicuous
place. Such spots are thought very sacred, and no one would venture to
remove any of the skulls, such an act of desecration being thought a
capital offence.
Like many other savage tribes, they are very careless of human life,
and have many capital offences, of which witchcraft is the most common.
It may seem strange that people who habitually eat the bodies of their
fellow-men should have any superstitious feelings whatever, but among
the Fans the dread of sorcery is nearly as great as among some of the
tribes which have been already mentioned.
Witchcraft, however, is not always punished with death, the offender
being sometimes sold into slavery, the “emigrant” ships having of late
years received many Fans on board. It will be seen that the Fans always
utilize their criminals. Those who are condemned for theft, or other
ordinary crime, are executed, and their bodies eaten. But the wizards
are supposed to possess some charms which would make their bodies as
injurious after death as the culprits had been during life, and so they
sell the criminal for “traders’ goods.”
No Fan ever dreams of going without a whole host of amulets, each of
which is supposed to protect him from some special danger. The most
valuable is one which is intended to guard the wearer in battle,
and this is to be found on the person of every Fan warrior who can
afford it. It is very simple, being nothing but an iron chain with
links an inch and a half long by an inch in width. This is hung over
the left shoulder and under the right arm, and is thought to be very
efficacious. Perhaps such a chain may at some time or other have turned
the edge of a weapon, and, in consequence, the illogical natives have
thought that the iron chains were effectual preservatives in war.
Next in value comes a small bag, which is hung round the neck, and
which is a conspicuous ornament among the men. This is also a battle
fetish, and is made of the skin of some rare animal. It contains bits
of dried skin, feathers of scarce birds, the dried tips of monkeys’
tails, the dried intestines of certain animals, shells, and bits of
bone. Each article must have been taken from some rare animal, and have
been specially consecrated by the medicine man. The warriors are often
so covered with these and similar fetishes that they rattle at every
step, much to the gratification of the wearer, and even the children
are positively laden with fetish ornaments.
The reader will remember that throughout the whole of the tribes which
have been described runs a custom of celebrating some kind of religious
ceremony when the new moon is first seen. This custom is to be also
found among the Fans. It has been graphically described by Mr. W.
Reade, as follows:--
“The new moon began to rise. When she was high in the heavens, I had
the fortune to witness a religious dance in her honor. There were two
musicians, one of whom had an instrument called _handja_, constructed
on the principle of an harmonicon; a piece of hard wood being beaten
with sticks, and the notes issuing from calabashes of different
sizes fastened below. This instrument is found everywhere in Western
Africa. It is called _Balonda_ in Senegambia; _Marimba_ in Angola. It
is also described by Froebel as being used by the Indians of Central
America, where, which is still more curious, it is known by the same
name--_Marimba_. The other was a drum which stood upon a pedestal, its
skin made from an elephant’s ear. The dull thud of this drum, beaten
with the hands, and the harsh rattle of the handja, summoned the
dancers.
“They came singing in procession from the forest. Their dance was
uncouth; their song a solemn tuneless chant; they revolved in a circle,
clasping their hands as we do in prayer, with their eyes fixed always
on the moon, and sometimes their arms hung wildly toward her. The youth
who played the drum assumed a glorious attitude. As I looked upon
him--his head thrown back, his eyes upturned, his fantastic headdress,
his naked, finely moulded form--I saw beauty in the savage for the
first time.
“The measure changed, and two women, covered with green leaves and
the skins of wild beasts, danced in the midst, where they executed a
_pas-de-deux_ which would have made a _première danseuse_ despair. They
accompanied their intricate steps with miraculous contortions of the
body, and obtained small presents of white beads from the spectators.
“It has always appeared to me a special ordinance of Nature that women,
who are so easily fatigued by the ascent of a flight of stairs, or by
a walk to church, should be able to dance for any length of time; but
never did I see female endurance equal this. Never did I spend a worse
night’s rest. All night long those dreary deafening sounds drove sleep
away, and the next morning these two infatuated women were still to be
seen within a small but select circle of constant admirers, writhing in
their sinuous (and now somewhat odorous) forms with unabated ardor.”
The form of marimba or handja which is used among the Fans has mostly
seven notes, and the gourds have each a hole in them covered with a
piece of spider’s web, as has already been narrated of the Central
African drums. The Fan handja is fastened to a slight frame; and when
the performer intends to play the instrument, he sits down, places the
frame on his knees, so that the handja is suspended between them, and
then beats on the keys with two short sticks. One of these sticks is
made of hard wood, but the end of the other is covered with some soft
material so as to deaden the sound. The Fans have really some ear for
music, and possess some pretty though rudely constructed airs.
Of course the Fans have drums. The favorite form seems rather awkward
to Europeans. It consists of a wooden and slightly conical cylinder,
some four feet in length and only ten inches in diameter at the wider
end, the other measuring barely seven inches. A skin is stretched
tightly over the large end, and when the performer plays on it, he
stands with bent knees, holding the drum between them, and beats
furiously on the head with two wooden sticks.
To return to the Fan belief in charms.
It has already been mentioned that the Fans mostly hunt the elephant
by driving it against a barrier artificially formed of vines, and
killing it as it struggles to escape from the tangled and twisted
creepers. They have also another and most ingenious plan, which,
however, scarcely seems to be their own invention, but to be partly
borrowed from the tribes through which they have passed in their
progress westward. This plan is called the Nghal, that being the
name of the enclosure into which the animals are enticed. While Mr.
Reade was in the country of the Mpongwé tribe, into which, it will be
remembered, the Fans had forced their way, the hunters found out that
three elephants frequented a certain portion of the forest. Honorably
paying the Mpongwé for permission to hunt in their grounds, they set
out and built round an open patch of ground an enclosure, slightly
made, composed of posts and railings. Round the nghal were the huts of
the Fan hunters. When Mr. Reade arrived there, he was told that the
three elephants were within the nghal, sleeping under a tree; and sure
enough there they were, one of them being a fine old male with a large
pair of tusks. If he had chosen he could have walked through the fence
without taking the trouble to alter his pace, but here he was, together
with his companions, without the slightest idea of escaping. So certain
were the hunters that their mighty prey was safe, that they did not
even take the trouble to close the openings through which the animals
had entered the nghal. They were in no hurry to kill the elephants.
They liked to look at them as they moved about in the nghal, apparently
unconscious of the continual hubbub around them, and certainly
undisturbed by it. The elephants were to remain there until the new
moon, which would rise in a fortnight, and then they would be killed in
its honor.
On inquiring, it was found that the enclosure was not built round
the elephants, as might have been supposed. No. It was built at some
distance from the spot where the elephants were feeding. “The medicine
men made fetish for them to come in. They came in. The medicine men
made fetish for them to remain. And they remained. When they were
being killed, fetish would be made that they might not be angry. In a
fortnight’s time the new moon would appear, and the elephants would
then be killed. Before that time all the shrubs and light grass would
be cut down, the fence would be strengthened, and interlaced with
boughs. The elephants would be killed with spears, crossbows, and guns.”
The natives, however, would not allow their white visitor to enter the
nghal, as he wished to do, and refused all his bribes of beads and
other articles precious to the soul of the Fan. They feared lest the
presence of a white man might break the fetish, and the sight of a
white face might fright the elephants so much as to make them disregard
all the charms that had been laid upon them, and rush in their terror
against the fragile barrier which held them prisoners.
As to the method by which the elephants were induced to enter the
enclosure, no other answer was made than that which had already been
given. In India the enclosure is a vast and complicated trap, with an
opening a mile or so in width, into which the elephants are driven
gradually, and which is closed behind them as they advance into smaller
and smaller prisons. In Africa all that was done was to build an
enclosure, to leave an opening just large enough to admit an elephant,
to make fetish for the elephants, and in they came.
The whole thing is a mystery. Mr. Reade, who frankly confesses that if
he had not with his own eyes seen the nghal and its still open door he
would have refused to believe the whole story, is of opinion that the
“fetish” in question is threefold. He suggests that the first fetish
was a preparation of some plant for which the elephants have the same
mania that cats have for valerian and pigeons for salt, and thinks
that they may have been enticed into the nghal by means of this herb.
Then, after they had been induced to enter the enclosure, that they
were kept from approaching the fence by means of drugs distasteful
to them, and that the “fetish” which prevented them from being angry
when killed was simply a sort of opiate thrown to them. The well-known
fastidiousness of the elephant may induce some readers to think that
this last suggestion is rather improbable. But it is also known that,
in some parts of Africa, elephants are usually drugged by poisoned
food, and that the Indian domesticated elephant will do almost anything
for sweetmeats in which the intoxicating hemp forms an ingredient.
That the elephants are prevented from approaching the fence by means
of a distasteful preparation seems likely from a piece of fetishism
that Mr. Reade witnessed. At a certain time of the day the medicine man
made his round of the fence, singing in a melancholy voice, and daubing
the posts and rails with a dark brown liquid. This was acknowledged
to be the fetish by which the elephants were induced to remain within
the enclosure, and it is very probable that it possessed some odor
which disgusted the keen-scented animals, and kept them away from its
influence.
Mr. Reade also suggests that this method of catching elephants may be a
relic of the days when African elephants were taken alive and trained
to the service of man, as they are now in India and Ceylon. That the
knowledge of elephant training has been lost is no wonder, considering
the internecine feuds which prevail among the tribes of Africa, and
prevent them from developing the arts of peace. But that they were so
caught and trained, even in the old classical days, is well known; and
from all accounts the elephants of Africa were not one whit inferior
to their Indian relatives in sagacity or docility. Yet there is now no
part of Africa in which the natives seem to have the least idea that
such monstrous animals could be subjected to the sway of man, and even
in Abyssinia the sight of elephants acting as beasts of burden and
traction filled the natives with half incredulous awe.
When the Fans have succeeded in killing an elephant, they proceed to
go through a curious ceremony, which has somewhat of a religious
character about it. No meat is touched until these rites have been
completed. The whole hunting party assembles round the fallen elephant,
and dances round its body. The medicine man then comes and cuts off
a piece of meat from one of the hind legs and places it in a basket,
there being as many baskets as slain elephants. The meat is then cooked
under the superintendence of the medicine man and the party who killed
the elephant, and it is then carried off into the woods and offered to
the idol. Of course the idol is supposed to eat it, and the chances are
that he does so through the medium of his representative, the medicine
man. Before the baskets are taken into the woods, the hunters dance
about them as they had danced round the elephant, and beseech the idol
to be liberal toward them, and give them plenty of elephants so that
they may be able to give him plenty of meat.
The spirits being thus propitiated, the flesh is stripped off the bones
of the elephant, sliced, and hung upon branches, and smoked until it is
dry, when it can be kept for a considerable time.
The reader may remember that one of the principal ornaments of the
idol temple is the skull of the gorilla, and the same object is used
by several of the tribes for a similar purpose. The fact is, all the
natives of those districts in which the gorilla still survive are
horribly afraid of the animal, and feel for it that profound respect
which, in the savage mind, is the result of fear, and fear only. A
savage never respects anything that he does not fear, and the very
profound respect which so many tribes, even the fierce, warlike, and
well-armed Fans, have for the gorilla, show that it is really an animal
which is to be dreaded.
There has been so much controversy about the gorilla, and the history
of this gigantic ape is so inextricably interwoven with this part of
South Africa, that the present work would be imperfect without a brief
notice of it. In the above-mentioned controversy, two opposite views
were taken--one, that the gorilla was the acknowledged king of the
forest, supplanting all other wild animals, and even attacking and
driving away the elephant itself. Of man it had no dread, lying in
wait for him and attacking him whenever it saw a chance, and being a
terrible antagonist even in fair fight, the duel between man and beast
being a combat _à l’outrance_, in which one or the other must perish.
Those who took the opposite view denounced all these stories as
“old wives’ fables, only fit to be relegated to your grandmother’s
bookshelves.”--I quote the exact words--saying that the gorilla, being
an ape, is necessarily a timid and retiring animal, afraid of man,
and running away when it sees him. It is hardly necessary to mention
that M. du Chaillu is responsible for many of the statements contained
in the former of these theories--several, however, being confessedly
gathered from hearsay, and that several others were prevalent
throughout Europe long before Du Chaillu published his well-known work.
The truth seems to lie between these statements, and it is tolerably
evident that the gorilla is a fierce and savage beast when attacked,
but that it will not go out of its way to attack a man, and indeed will
always avoid him if it can. That it is capable of being a fierce and
determined enemy is evident from the fact that one of Mr. W. Reade’s
guides, the hunter Etia, had his left hand crippled by the bite of a
gorilla; and Mr. Wilson mentions that he has seen a man who had lost
nearly the whole calf of one leg in a similar manner, and who said that
he was in a fair way of being torn in pieces if he had not been rescued
by his companions. Formidable as are the terrible jaws and teeth of the
gorilla when it succeeds in seizing a man, its charge is not nearly
so much to be feared as that of the leopard, as it is made rather
leisurely, and permits the agile native to spring aside and avoid it.
On account of the structure common to all the monkey tribe, the gorilla
habitually walks on all-fours, and is utterly incapable of standing
upright like a man. It can assume a partially erect attitude, but with
bent knees, stooping body, and incurved feet, and is not nearly so
firmly set on its legs as is a dancing bear. Even while it stands on
its feet, the heavy body is so ill supported on the feeble legs that
the animal is obliged to balance itself by swaying its large arms in
the air, just as a rope-dancer balances himself with his pole.
In consequence of the formation of the limbs, the tracks which it
leaves are very curious, the long and powerful arms being used as
crutches, and the short feeble hind legs swung between them. It seems
that each party or family of gorillas is governed by an old male, who
rules them just as the bull rules its mates and children.
The natives say that the gorilla not only walks, but charges upon
all-fours, though it will raise itself on its hind legs in order to
survey its foes. Etia once enacted for Mr. W. Reade the scene in which
he had received the wound that crippled his hand. Directing Mr. Reade
to hold a gun as if about to shoot, he rushed forward on all-fours,
seized the left wrist with one of his hands, dragged it to his mouth,
made believe to bite it, and then made off on all-fours as he had
charged. And, from the remarkable intelligence which this hideous but
polite hunter had shown in imitating other animals, it was evident that
his story was a true one.
As to the houses which the gorilla is said to build, there is some
truth in the story. Houses they can scarcely be called, inasmuch as
they have no sides, and in their construction the gorilla displays an
architectural power far inferior to that of many animals. The lodge
of the beaver is a palace compared with the dwelling of the gorilla.
Many of the deserted residences may be found in the forests which the
gorilla inhabits, and look much like herons’ nests on a rather large
scale. They consist simply of sticks torn from the trees and laid
on the spreading part of a horizontal branch, so as to make a rude
platform. This nest, if we may so call it, is occupied by the female,
and in process of time is shared by her offspring. The males sleep in a
large tree.
Shy and retiring in its habits, the gorilla retreats from the
habitations of man, and loves to lurk in the gloomiest recesses of the
forest, where it finds its favorite food, and where it is free from
the intrusion of man. As to the untamable character of the gorilla as
contrasted with the chimpanzee, Mr. Reade mentions that he has seen
young specimens of both animals kept in a tame state, and both equally
gentle.
We now come to the statement that, while the gorilla is working
himself up to an attack, he beats his breast until it resounds like a
great drum, giving out a loud booming sound that can be heard through
the forest at the distance of three miles. How such a sound can be
produced in such a manner it is not easy to comprehend, and Mr. Reade,
on careful inquiry from several gorilla hunters, could not find that
one of them had ever heard the sound in question, or, indeed, had ever
heard of it. They said that the gorilla had a drum, and, on being asked
to show it, took their interlocutor to a large hollow tree, and said
that the gorilla seized two neighboring trees with his hands, and swung
himself against the hollow trunk, beating it so “strong-strong” with
his feet that the booming sound could be heard at a great distance.
Etia illustrated the practice of the gorilla by swinging himself
against the tree in a similar manner, but failed in producing the
sound. However, he adhered to his statement, and, as a succession of
heavy blows against a hollow trunk would produce a sort of booming
noise, it is likely that his statement may have been in the main a
correct one.
Now that the natives have procured fire-arms, they do not fear the
gorilla as much as they used to do. Still, even with such potent
assistance, gorilla hunting is not without its dangers, and, as we have
seen, many instances are known where a man has been severely wounded by
the gorilla, though Mr. Reade could not hear of a single case where the
animal had killed any of its assailants.
When the native hunters chase the gorilla, and possess fire-arms, they
are obliged to fire at very short range, partly because the dense
nature of those parts of the forest which the gorilla haunts prevent
them from seeing the animal at a distance of more than ten or twelve
yards, and partly because it is necessary to kill at the first shot
an animal which, if only wounded, attacks its foes, and uses fiercely
the formidable weapons with which it has been gifted. Any one who has
seen the skull of an adult gorilla, and noticed the vast jaw-bones, the
enormous teeth, and the high bony ridges down the head which afford
attachment to the muscles, can easily understand the terrible force of
a gorilla’s bite. The teeth, and not the paws, are the chief, if not
the only weapons which the animal employs; and, although they are given
to it in order to enable it to bite out the pith of the trees on which
it principally feeds, they can be used with quite as great effect in
combat.
So the negro hunter, who is never a good shot, and whose gun is
so large and heavy that to take a correct aim is quite out of the
question, allows the gorilla to come within three or four yards before
he delivers his fire. Sometimes the animal is too quick for him, and
in that case he permits it to seize the end of the barrel in its hands
and drag it to its mouth, and then fires just as the great jaws enclose
the muzzle between the teeth. Seizing the object of attack in the
hands, and drawing it to the mouth, seems to be with the gorilla, as
with others of the monkey tribe, the ordinary mode of fighting. The
hunter has to be very careful that he fires at the right moment, as the
gigantic strength of the gorilla enables it to make very short work of
a trade gun, if it should happen to pull the weapon out of its owner’s
hands. A French officer told Mr. Reade that he had seen one of these
guns which had been seized by a gorilla, who had twisted and bent the
barrel “_comme une papillote_.”
The same traveller, who is certainly not at all disposed to exaggerate
the size or the power of the gorilla, was greatly struck by the aspect
of one that had been recently killed. “One day Mongilambu came and
told me that there was a freshly-killed gorilla for sale. I went down
to the beach, and saw it lying in a small canoe, which it almost
filled. It was a male, and a very large one. The preserved specimen
can give you no idea of what this animal really is, with its skin
still unshrivelled, and the blood scarcely dry upon its wounds. The
hideousness of its face, the grand breadth of its breast, its massive
arms, and, above all, its hands, like those of a human being, impressed
me with emotions which I had not expected to feel. But nothing is
perfect. The huge trunk dwindled into a pair of legs, thin, bent,
shrivelled, and decrepid as those of an old woman.”
Such being the impression made on a civilized being by the dead body
of a gorilla lying in a canoe, the natives may well be excused for
entertaining a superstitious awe of it as it roams the forest in
freedom, and for thinking that its skull is a fit adornment for the
temple of their chief idol.
To a party of native hunters unprovided with fire-arms, the chase of
the animal is a service of real difficulty and danger. They are obliged
to seek it in the recesses of its own haunts, and to come to close
quarters with it. (See the illustration on page 457). The spear is
necessarily the principal weapon employed, as the arrow, even though
poisoned, does not kill at once, and the gorilla is only incited by the
pain of a wound to attack the man who inflicted it. Their fear of the
animal is also increased by the superstition which has already been
mentioned, that a man is sometimes transformed into a gorilla, and
becomes thereby a sort of sylvan demon, who cannot be killed--at all
events, by a black man--and who is possessed with a thirst for killing
every human being that he meets.
Any specially large gorilla is sure to be credited with the reputation
of being a transformed man; and as the adult male sometimes measures
five feet six inches or so in height, there is really some excuse for
the native belief that some supernatural power lies hidden in this
monstrous ape.
After a careful investigation, Mr. Reade has come to the conclusion
that, except in point of size, there is no essential difference in the
gorilla and the chimpanzee, both animals going usually on all-fours,
and both building slight houses or platforms in the trees, both
changing their dwelling in search of food and to avoid the neighborhood
of man, and both, without being gregarious, sometimes assembling
together in considerable numbers.