Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1902-01-02

While man sees this upper world
at distance, or not at all, his nearest
animal relations cannot only reach it,
but are at home in it. One may hear
the cries of monkeys above him, and
the rustling of the branches as they
scamper away from tree-top to tree
top, faster than he can follow on the
ground. But to catch a glimpse Of
them is not SO easy. One may. per
haps, be shown by native guide
some leafy bed in the branches above
and be told that chimpanzees have
slept there.
Nor are monkeys and lemurs the
only arhoreal animals The forest is
paradise for squirrels. of which
there are eight or nine species. of all
colors and sizes, down TO the little
pigmy squirrel, the size of your
thumb. Besides. there is whole
peculiar family of scale tail flyirg
squirrels, with sort of hob-nails on
the under side of the tail, to help
them climb or jump. The cats, from
Even snakes are seen as often over.
head as on the ground.
| Except where the path goes. the
| under world is not much more &C
cessible than the upper, at least Il
| the white man, who doesn't know how
| to twist in and out among thorny
| vines. The little antelopes, the wilC
| hos and the porcupine can slip abou
| III the universal thicket, and the ele
| plant crashes through it, uprooting {
sapling here and there, and leaving
broad path behind him. But thest
| animals are seldom seen or heard. Ii
general there is lonely silence below
| the forest.
1t is gloomy and dark on this lower
! deck of the tropical world. The sun
| shine, birds and flowers are mostly
J far overhead. But one sometimes
meets delightful surprises, for there
| is beauty even here. Several kinds
| OF trees and shrubs have q way of put
! ting forth blossoms right out of the
! trunk. There are flowers set right OF
the damp, black bark, as yellow az
| Dakota sunfiOwers-so flaming thai
| they seem to light up the gloom
Again, at the right season, one ma,
| find clusters Of blood-red fruit. grow
| ing down on the trunks of trees. Blu
, these bits of brightness are only DC
| casional. For the most part all il
black, damp and decaying.
! The loneliness Of the forest is op
tween two settlements there is NJ
more welcome sight than a garden
| clearing, showing that human habita
| tons are not far off. Then the two
! rows Of smoky tumble-down huts will
| the yellow clay street between thq
from the village are a gladdenin&
view, for they are the dwellings, OF
| ones own kind.
| The sense of the Omnipresence C1
| the forest appears in the speech 0.
! the men who inhabit it. To go astray
! or aside, in the Fang language, is tt
go into the forest" To throw {
| thing away is 10 throw it "a-forest
| To arrive at place is to come out
! or emerge" while to set forth from
place is to ENTER" 1t is not neces
sary to add what is entered or com,
, out from. AS evident In the character
! Of the people is an Unborn revulsior
) against the loneliness of the forest
/ The ideal village, to them, is perfectly
| cleared of vegetation. Shade tree:
| have no attractions for them. TX
travel alone, and especially to sleel
| alone, in the forest is a hardship, no
so much on account of any danger a.
on account of the loneliness.
! fayorite name for a village mean:
! ''Noise-of-People." The hubbub o
| talking and singing and drumming il
the village street is dear to the hear
of a Fang, for in it he forgets the
! great black forest.
Only the dwarf tribe, OCCASIONAL!
met with in this country, seem to b.
entirely reconciled to the forest
Only they are content to live il
booths of leaves, hunting the game o
the forest depths with an hereditar!
keeness that is almost instinct.