The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-11-06

mails, upon birds and their eRRs ana upon rep
tiles" TO which observation no adds the
information that Captive gorilas at Berlin
developed special taste for animal food"
Whatever their anthropophagous habits may
be, certainly no unarmed human being could
stand for an instant before the arms and fangs
of full-grown male gorilla, who might
might not devour him after death, according
to predispositions, circumstances, necessities,
about which uaturalists know little in general
| and nothing in particular.
In wild state gorilas have been seen but
little, and their way of life is therefore by no
means fully understood. They are shy, wary
and nearly solitary creatures, who overawe the
populations in their vicinity, aud whose habitat,
besides being incompletely explored, is. so far
climate is concerned, among the most deadly to
foreigners upon the face Of tho earth Despite
the upright position which their conformation
facilitates, they generally go
UPON ALL-FOURs
as their tracks indicate. and 1t is said that they
always attack in this attitude, and not in an
erect one, as described by Du Chaillu. Fur
Their, they never avail themselves in walking
of the aid of staff like orang-Outans. Ira
ditionally, gorilas crouch on limbs of trees
overhanging the pathways betwixt villages,
and catch up unwary passers-by, whom they
Immediately strange if men, or appropriate
| for wives in the case Of women.
When young their resemblance to human
beings Is much stronger than in maturity
This, according to Virchow and others, is due
to the fact that tho external table of the skull
| which in most animals is more intimately re-
| lated to the muscular apparatus than to- the
| brain, receives constant additions to its proc
esses and protuberances until their growth
distorts the head so that it looks like dreadful
carcature of that of man. On the other hand
| the mouth is comparatively smaller than in
anthropoids generally, and the lips are less
| extensile.
A gorilla lays few broken boughs and cross
pieces over the limbs of tree. and may or may
not attempt to cover it rudely and mperfectly
| from tho weather. This platform is his only
| approach to tho construction of dwelling and
is occupied by the gravid female, and for some
| time after their birth, by the mother and her
offspring. The latter exhibit few of the ferociOus
| and intractably savage traits that distinguish
adults, and as L. Ramsay Wright concludes
from all the evidence at present accessible, are
| quite susceptible of domesticatiOn.
Innumersble superstitions connected with
the gorilla beset the native mind. Witchcraft
is the only operative religion of Africa.
THE GHOST IN SOME FORM
| Is there at the beginning and end of all con-
| captions Of supernatural power, of another life,
and of all the relations which the unknown and
| shadowy realm of fancy sustains, in every
| aspect towards the visible and material world.
1
| misfortune is to be attributed to their malei-
| cent arts. Hence the African negro-all Afri-
| cans are not negroes by any meaus-beieves
| in witch gorillas who delight in murder and
| are invuluerable, and thinks he may at any
| time meet the progeny of these, begotten by
| means Of captive women carried off III the for
| ests.
! 1t Is scarcely credible that animals so ex-
| tremely powerful aud so well provided with
means Of Ofense could be, as they are, constantly
| hunted without many tragic occurrences; and
it is, moreover utterly opposed TO all geological
! analogies TO suppose that creatures so capable
of fatal aggression do not occasionally at least
| destroy human life without being Intentionally
| provoked. Such incidents surround particular
| individuals of this species with an atmosphere
| of superstitious terror, as they do man eating
| tigers, lions, panthers. The savage reveres
everything that he fears. and if it is very ter
| rible he worships it. For every reason, then,
the folk lore connected with these great apes is
| extensive and Du Cbaillu probably did not
| overdraw his pictures of hunters sitting around
| their campfire at night and exchanging stories
of the cruelty, malignant, craft, and super
natural powers of old gorillas.
| The term ape is said to DO an onOmatope a
| descriptive word, most likely of African origin.
| which in its first form attempted TO designate
| the animal by initiating its voice. Whether
| the etymology be correct or not. the gorillas
voice when raised is one of the most impTessi We
| in nature. Monkeys are said to " swear" when
enraged, and assurediy their angry chatter has
| every appearance of objurgation. A limited
SERIES OF SOUNDS,
| as expressive of pleasure aud dissatisfaction,
| has likewise been recorded in the case OF
domestcated chimpanzees and orangs. But
| the greatest OF all apes has never. so far
| as the writer is aware, grown up in cap
/ fttFfNF Ifa ohnltx ID