70 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i 



" Though he never lies in wait, yet, when he hears, 

 sees, or scents a man, he immediately utters his charac- 

 teristic cry, prepares for an attack, and always acts on 

 the offensive. The cry he utters resembles a grunt more 

 than a growl, and is similar to the cry of the Chimpanzee, 

 when irritated, but vastly louder. It is said to be audible 

 at a great distance. His preparation consists in attend- 

 ing the females and young ones, by whom he is usually 

 accompanied, to a little distance. He, however, soon re- 

 turns, with his crest erect and projecting forward, his 

 nostrils dilated, and his under-lip thrown down, at the 

 same time uttering his characteristic yell, designed, it 

 would seem, to terrify his antagonist. Instantly, unless 

 he is disabled by a well-directed shot, he makes an onset, 

 and, striking his antagonist with the palm of his hands, 

 or seizing him with a grasp from which there is no escape, 

 he dashes him upon the ground, and lacerates him with 

 his tusks. 



" He is said to seize a musket, and instantly crush the 



barrel between his teeth This animal's savage 



nature is very well shown by the implacable desperation 

 of a young one that was brought here. It was taken 

 very young, and kept four months, and many means were 

 used to tame it ; but it was incorrigible, so that it bit me 

 an hour before it died." 



Mr. Ford discredits the house-building and 

 elephant-driving stories, and says that no well- 

 informed natives believe them. They are tales 

 told to children. 



I might quote other testimony to a similar ef- 

 iect, but, as it appears to me, less carefully weighed 

 and sifted, from the letters of MM. Franquet and 

 Gautier Laboullay, appended to the memoir of 

 M. I. G. St. Hilaire, which I have already cited. 



