VIEWS OF ANIMAL LIFE.
As we study the animal life of Africa, we can but notice the great
variety in its species. We find not only those kinds with which we are
most familiar, and those which have become known to us through our study
of other continents, but many new and strange ones, characteristic of
Africa alone.
Here are found the lion, leopard, jackal, hyena, and other carnivora of
the cat and dog families. Varieties of the thick-skinned animals are
numerous; for we find a species of elephant somewhat different from the
elephant of Asia, several varieties of the rhinoceros, the hippopotamus,
the wart hog, and boar, all ugly, unwieldy and clumsy in their form and
movements.
In the tropics are found great varieties of monkeys, chattering wildly
as they spring among the branches of the trees. The fierce gorilla
haunts the dense forests, to the terror of the natives and travelers.
Du Chaillu, the explorer, had an encounter with gorillas while crossing
the Sierra del Crystal to reach the Fan country. During the journey he
had occasion to scale a range of granite hills and to traverse an
elevated table-land. Here he found the temperature quite cold at night.
As he climbed a second range of hills he came upon the Ntambounay Falls.
These he declared to be one of the grandest sights he ever beheld, and
adds:--
"It was not a waterfall, but an immense mountain torrent, dashing
downhill at an angle of twenty-five or thirty degrees, for not less than
a mile right before us, like a vast, seething, billowy sea.
"The river course was full of the huge granite boulders which lie about
here as though the Titans had been playing at skittles in this country;
and against these the angry waters dashed as though they would carry
all before them, and breaking up, threw the milky spray up to the very
tops of the trees which grew along the edge.
"Where we stood, at the foot of the rapids, the stream took a winding
turn up the mountains; but we had the whole mile of foaming rapids
before us, seemingly pouring its mass of waters down on our heads."
It was just above these falls that Du Chaillu shot an immense serpent.
One can imagine the feeling of repulsion with which he saw his men cut
off its head and divide the body into pieces, which they roasted and ate
with relish.
A short distance beyond the spot, he came upon the footprints of what
the natives declared to be gorillas. These footprints were so fresh that
it was decided to give chase to the creatures which had made them. The
gorillas were, however, very agile, and soon escaped into the forest
depths.
Du Chaillu, in speaking of his experience, says: "I protest I felt
almost like a murderer when I saw the gorillas the first time. As they
ran, on their hind legs, they looked fearfully like hairy men, their
heads down, their bodies inclined forward, their whole appearance like
men running for their lives.
"Take this with their awful cry, which, fierce and animal as it is, has
something human in its discordance, and you will cease to wonder that
the natives have the wildest superstitions about these 'wild men of the
woods.'"
One of the superstitions, common wherever the gorilla is to be found,
is that the spirits of certain departed negroes have entered the bodies
of a particular species of gorilla. The gorillas of this species can
never be caught or killed, since they bear a charmed life. The natives
claim, too, that these gorillas show more shrewdness and sense than
ordinary animals. In a word, they combine the intelligence of man and
the strength and fierceness of the brute creation.
In further description of a gorilla hunt Du Chaillu continues: "I
noticed, ahead of us seemingly, a noise as of some one breaking down
branches or twigs of trees. This was the gorilla, I knew at once by the
eager and satisfied looks of the men.
"They looked once more carefully at their guns, to see if by 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. 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 finally we
thought we saw through the thick 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.
"Suddenly, as we were yet 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 just ahead, and presently before us
stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on all
fours, but when he saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly
in the face.
"He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight, I think, never
to forget. Nearly six feet high, with immense body, huge chest, and
great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep-gray eyes and a
malignant expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare
vision,--thus before us stood the king of the African forests.
"He was not afraid of us. He stood there and beat his breast with his
huge fists till it sounded like an immense bass drum, which is their
mode of offering defiance, meantime giving vent to roar after roar.
"The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in
these African woods. It begins with a sharp bark, like an angry dog,
then glides into a deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles
the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have sometimes
been tempted to take it where I did not see the animal. So deep is it
that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the
deep chest of the creature.
"His eyes began to flash fiercer 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, while his powerful fangs were shown
as he again sent forth a thunderous roar.
"And now he truly reminded me of nothing but some horrible dream
creature,--a being of that hideous order, half man, half beast, which
we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the lower
regions.
"He advanced a few steps, then stopped to utter that hideous roar again,
advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of about six
yards from us. And here, as he began another of his roars, and beating
his breast in rage, we fired, and killed him. With a groan which had
something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell
forward on his face."
As soon as the great beast was dead, the men cut up the carcass and
divided it in portions to be cooked. The brains were carefully preserved
as charms. When prepared in one way, the charm gives the wearer a mighty
arm for the chase; when in another, it renders the possessor popular and
a favorite in savage society.