The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-03-20
THE KYAMO'S DEPTHS.
Story of q Man Who Lived . Prisoner
Among the GorilIas.
Translated From the French by Elfried dc B.
GUIDE

Translated From the French by Elfried dc B.
GUIDE.
1t was early nightfall in the little negro
village, Ouan-Matslei, on the border Of the
vast Kyamo, one of the largest wilder
nesses of the Dark Continent. A pale
moon shone through the light, floating
clouds, and the palms. waving softly in
the breeze, cast long. undulating shadows
on the silvery ground. The air was heavy
with the perfume of tropical flowers, and
the wind, rising and falling, seemed full of
a wild and mournful music. At intervals,
as it died into silence, one could hear the
roaring of lion, answered often by an
other from a still greater distance, and the
cries and growing of smaller animals, less
clear, more underlined.
The natives of the village were not yet
asleep. Most of them were grouped
around huge fire, where colossal feast
of roasted meats was to be prepared in
honor of the guests. A few, however,
loitered near the cabin of their chief,
gazing with an interest, not unmingled
with awe, on the white strangers.
Two of them, Hammelin and Ranstein,
were explorers bent on discovery, eager to
see and study all that would enable them
to describe with exactitude those parts
of Africa of which little is as yet known to
Europeans.
Mayne, the third European, was less ex.
plorer than naturalist. Forty years of age,
independent, a bachelor, man of rare in
telligence, his whole life had been devoted
TO those studies which seek to penetrate
the secrets of the gradual evolution of ma
ture. the emanating source from which
man has developed into what he is today.
He was eagerly questioning one of the
natives about the adjoining forest, and
the old negro, delighted to have so atten-
tive an auditor, told him of its wonders
and mysteries, which were full of intense
and often romantic interest. The length
of the kyamo, he said, was forty days
march and its breadth twenty days. 1t
is old-almost beyond conception-as old
as the world. The natives never ventured
to enter it save singly. Even the lions had
been driven beyond its borders, and never
to human knowledge, not even SO far back
as the Oldest legends, had it been owned
save by the wild men of the forest, the
giant African gorinas, who had held it i'm
periously and VIGOROUSLY through all the
ages.
Mayne, interested, thrilled with the rare
delight of the savant, asked eagerly:
HAST thou seen him-the man of the
forest2"
81 have seen him, master; l have been
in the Kyamo. The man of the forest is
not more tall than the white man, but he
is far broader and more strong. His chest
is wider and more powerful than that of
the lion his arms are invincible. A few
of US have dared to penetrate into the
forest, but alone and unarmed. If one
goes there humble and timid one may
meet with no harm, but to provoke the
anger of the gorilla means death. The
wrath of the man of the forest is merci-
less, terrible"
care they in great numbers?"
They are in immense numbers, master.
The Kyamo contains many hundreds of
their villages"
But they do not live in groups?"
mo; each dwells apart with his wives,
but close TO the others. Sometimes they
join and form tribes, and then they choose
chief as We do"
Mayne, his head resting against the
rough wall Of the cabin, fell into profound
meditation, fraught with aiiuring dreams.
There, in the depths of the Kyamo, one
might find majestic revelation of the an
Gent history of primitive man. In this
virgin forest dwelled a race of beings that