72 THE MAN-LIKE APES. i 



respecting the Gorilla, is, that, in advancing to the 

 attack, the great brute beats his chest with his 

 fists. I confess I see nothing very improbable, or 

 very much worth disputing about, in this state- 

 ment. 



With respect to the other man-like Apes of 

 Africa, M. Du Chaillu tells us absolutely nothing, 

 of his own knowledge, regarding the common 

 Chimpanzee; but he informs us of a bald-headed 

 species or variety, the nschiego mbouve, which 

 builds itself a shelter, and of another rare kind 

 with a comparatively small face, large facial angle, 

 and peculiar note, resembling " Kooloo." 



As the Orang shelters itself with a rough 

 coverlet of leaves, and the common Chimpanzee, 

 according to that eminently trustworthy observer 

 Dr. Savage, makes a sound like " Whoo-whoo," — 

 the grounds of the summary repudiation with 

 which M. Du Chaillu's statements on these mat- 

 ters have been met are not obvious. 



If I have abstained from quoting M. Du 

 Chaillu's work, then, it is not because I discern 

 any inherent improbability in his assertions re- 

 specting the man-like Apes; nor from any wish to 

 throw suspicion on his veracity; but because, in 

 my opinion, so long as his narrative remains in its 

 present state of unexplained and apparently in- 

 explicable confusion, it has no claim to original au- 

 thority respecting any subject whatsoever. 



It may be truth, but it is not evidence. 



