The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-10-08
A GORILLA'S BRIDE.
The Remarkable Adventure of an Afri-
can Woman in the Congo Region.

The Remarkable Adventure of an Afri-
can Woman in the Congo Region.
The natives of Africa are towards
in war, an Indianapolis News man
was informed by Carl Steckleman,
the explorer, who started recently
for New York, preparatory to going
to the Congo region. "Ihey prefer
to take prisoners, and comparatively
few of their enemies are killed out
right. They are afraid to strike for
fear they will receive a more damag-
ing blow in return. They make
slaves of their prisoners and the cap
tives have a sorry time.
"Of all enemies they dread the
gorilla most. And he is foe that
no man dare despise. He will fight
at sight. Numbers do not deter him.
He is so human and so desperate in
his defense and attack that the Afri-
cans have long learned that to fight
with a gorilla is to fight to the death.
This dreadful animal keeps to the
woods, and it is necessary for him to
grasp hold of the boughs as he walks
on his hind legs. A man is, there
fore, comparatively safe if he is on
the prairie.
There are some extraordinary
things told of the gorilla. will re-
late one of them. l had always heard
it said that the male gorilla would
not harm woman. This is the COM
mon belief in some tribes. One day
we came to a village in which one
hut had been built apart from the
rest. We inquired for the reason of
this, and found that it had been
dedicated to witch. This witch
was greatly revered. She had been
the wife of a gorilla, The woman
had lived in village in house
which stood on the edge of the for
est. A great tree overhung her
shanty. In the village all the trees
had been cut down as precaution
against the gorillas. One night one
of these animals came out OF the
forest, got up into the big tree which
overhung the woman's house, climbed
down onto the roof, threw the roof
off, swung down into the hut, seized
the woman, climbed up through the
hole in the roof, up into the tree,
and went away into the woods, carry
ing the woman with him. His
great strength made this an easy
thing for him to do. He could hold
her in one arm and with his two hind
legs and his one free forearm make
his way up and down trees or through
the woods. The woman was gone
for many days. The people saw that
her house roof had been torn off.
They looked carefully around the
house and saw that there were no
tracks whatever. They then knew
that the dread enemy had carried
her off. One day she came back. She
told wonderful story. The gorilla
had carried her for miles into the
woods, and finally had climbed a
great tree and deposited her in his
home. There he treated her very
kindly, brought her food and drink,
but would not permit her to leave.
After watching her carefully for
many days he finally left her, pro-
badly intending to return IN short
time, convinced that she would re-
main. The woman came down to
the ground, and after wandering in
the forest for several days made her
way back to the village. The people
at first were about to kill her, but
they finally concluded that she was
possessed of extraordinary powers
They therefore built her house fol-
herself, supplied her with every com
fort, and looked up to her as sacred
person"
Aduort;ra unnr wants in the DAIII