THE MAN-LIKE APES. 61 



" It should be borne in mind that my account is based 

 upon the statements of the aborigines of that region (the 

 Gaboon). In this connection, it may also be proper for 

 me to remark, that having been a missionary resident for 

 several years, studying, from habitual intercom'se, the Af- 

 rican mind and character, I felt myself prepared to dis- 

 criminate and decide upon the probability of their state- 

 ments. Besides, being familiar with the history and habits 

 of its interesting congener {Trog. niger, Geoff.), I was able 

 to separate their accounts of the two animals, which, hav- 

 ing the same locality and a similarity of habit, are con- 

 founded in the minds of the mass, especially as but few — 

 such as traders to the interior and huntsmen — ^have ever 

 seen the animal in question. 



The tribe from which our knowledge of the animal is 

 derived, aud whose territory forms its habitat, is the 

 Ifpongwe^ occupying both banks of the River Gaboon, 

 from its mouth to some fifty or sixty miles upward. . . . 



If the word " Pongo " be of African origin, it is prob.- 

 ably a corruption of the word Ifpongwe^ the name of the 

 tribe on the banks of the Gaboon, and hence applied to 

 the region they inhabit. Their local name for the Chim- 

 panzee is Enche-eko, as near as it can be Anglicized, from 

 which the common term " Jocko " probably comes. The 

 Mpongwe appellation for its new congener is Enge-ena^ 

 prolonging the sound of the first vowel, and shghtly 

 sounding the second. 



The habitat of the Enge-ena is the interior of lower 

 Guinea, whilst that of the Enclie-eko is nearer the sea- 

 board. 



Its height is about five feet ; it is disproportionately 

 broad across the shoulders, thickly covered with coarse 

 black hair, which is said to be similar in its arrangement 

 to that of the Enche-eko / with age it becomes gray, which 



