St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1884-03-08
The Gorilla at Home.

1t is said by the natives that the
gor liza makes a sleeping-place like s
hammock, by connecting the branche:
of a sheltered and thickly-leaved part
of a tree bv means of the long. tough
slender stems OF parasitic plants. and
lining it with the dried broad fronds oi
fern, or with long grass. This ham.
mo:k-li abode may be seen at d fer.
ent heights. from ten to forty-iive feet
from the ground. but there is never
more than one such nest in tree. They
old the abodes of man. but are most
commonly seen in the months of Sep
tember, October and November, after
the negroes have gathered in their out
ly ng rice crops and have returned from
the '-Eush' to their valleys. 20 OBJ
served, they are described to be usually
in pairs, or if more, the addit on con
sists of few young ones Of different
ages and apparently of one family.
The gorilla is not gregar.ous. The
parents may be seen sitting on a hranch
resting their bacns against the tree
trunk munching fruit. while the Young
gorillas are at play. leaping and swing
ing from branch to lranch with boots
or harsh cries 0: boisterous m rth. This
rural felicity. however. has its OBJ
jectionable sides. for occa ;ionally. if
not invaria iy. the old male, if he is
seen in quest O. food, is usually arme
with short stick. which the negroes
aver to le the weapon with which he
attacks his chief enemy, the elephant
Not that the elephant directly or in
tentionally Injuries the gorilla, but. de-
irving its subsistence from the same
source. the ape regards the great pro-
boscidian a hostile intruder. When,
erefOre. he sees the elephant pulling
down and wrenching OF the branches
of favori'e tree, the gorilla. stea ing
along the ough, strikes the sens :
tive pro5osc s of the elephant a
violent blow with his club, and
dri' eS off the startled giant
trumpeting shrilly with pan In pass
;ng from one tree to another the gorilla
Is said 10 walk semi-ercct with the aid
of his club, but with waddling and
awkward gait; when wit out "A stick he
has been seen to walk as a man, with
head, instinctively balancing his for
ward position. If the gorilla be sur
prised and approached, whatever the
ground may be he hetakes himself on
all fours. dropping his stick, and makes
his way very rapidly with kind of
sidelock gallop, resting on the front
knuckles, to the nearest tree. There he
meets his pursuer, especially if his fam
ilv is near and requiring his defense.
No negro willingly approaches the tree
in which the male gorilla keeps guard,
even with a gun. The experienced ne
gro does not make the attack, but re-
serves his fire in self-defense. The en-
nifty Of the gorilla to the whole negro
race, male and female, is uniformly at
tested. Thus, when young men of the
Gaboon tribe make excursions into the
forest in quest OF ivory, the enemy thev
most dread to meet is the gorilla. If
they have cone unawares too near him
with his family, he does not, like the
lion, sElkily retreat, but cones rapidly
to the attack, swinging down to the
lower branches and clutch ng at the
nearest foe. The Eideous aspect of the
with his green eyes flaming
with rage. is heightened by the skin
over the orbits and eye brows feing
drawn rapidly ba ckward and forward,
with the hair erected. producing hor-
rible and fiendish scowl If fired at and
not mortally hit, the gorilla closes at
once upon his assalant and intiicts
most dangerous if not deadly wounds
with his sharp and powerful tuSks. The
of British trader once saw
q negro at the Cab on frightfully mutt
lated from the bite of a gorilla, from
which he had recovered. Another ne
yro exhibited to the same voyager a
run barrel. bent and partly tlatteued by
| wounded gorilla in his death-struggle.
-LoniOn Standard.