The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1884-03-29
The Gorilla at Home.

1t is said by the natives that the
gor liza makes a sleeping-place like
hammock, by connecting the branches
of sheltered and thickly-leaved part
of a tree by means of the long, tough,
slender stems OF parasitic plants, and
lining it with the dried broad fronds of
fern, or with long grass. This ham
mock-li abode may be seen at fer
emit heights, from ten to forty-five feet
from the ground, but there is never
more than one such nest in tree. They
avoid the abodes of man, but are most
commonly seen in the months of Sep
TENDER, October and November, after
the negroes have gathered in their out
ly ng rice crops and have returned from
the 'bush'' to their valleys. So 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 gregarious. The
parents may be seen sitting on branch
resting their backs against the tree
trunk munching fruit, while the young
gorillas are at play, leaping and swing
ing from branch to branch with boots
or harsh cries OF boisterous mirth. This
rural felicity, however, has its OBJ
iectionable sides, for occa iionally, if
not invaria ly, the old male, if he is
seen in quest OF food, is usually arme |
with short stick, which the negroes
aver to he 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 as a hostile intruder. When,
therefore, he sees the elephant pulling
down and wrenching off the branches
of a favori e tree, the gorilla, stea ing
along the Tough, strikes the sens !
tive probosc of the elephant a
violent blow with his club, and
dri, es off the startled giant
trumpeting shrilly with par In pass
ng from one tree to another the gorilla
is said to walk semi-erect with the aid
of his club, but with waddling and
awkward gait; when without a stick he
has been seen to walk as a man, with
his hands clasped across t back of his
head, instinctively balancing his for
ward position. If the gorilla be sur
prised and approached, whatever the
ground may be he eetakes himself on
all tours, dropping his stick, and makes
his way very rapidly with kind Of
sdelock gailop, resting on the front
knuckles- to the nearest tree. There he
meets his pursuer, especially if his fam
lily is near and requiring his defense
No negro willingly approaches the tree
in which the male gorilla keeps guard,
even with 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 they
most dread to meet is the gorilla. If
they have come unawares too near him
with his family, he does not, like the
lion, sulkily retreat, but comes rapidly
to the attack. swinging down 10 the
lower branches and clutch NO at the
nearest foe. The hideous aspect of the
animal, with his green eyes flaming
with rage, is heightened by the skin
over the orbits and eye brows being
drawn rapidly backward and forward,
with the hair erected, producing hor-
rible and fiendish scowl If fired at and
not mortally hit, the gorilla closes al
once upon his assailant and inficts
most dangerous if not deadly wounds
with his sharp and powerful tusks. The
commander of British trader once saw
a negro at the Gabcon frightfully mutt
lated from the bite of a gorilla, from
which he had recovered. Another ne.
gro exhibited to the same voyager a
gun barrel, bent and partly flattened BY
a wounded gorilla in his death-struggle,
LONDON Standard.