/ MEET THURSDAY. 27 



monster's body before being admitted to the happy hunt- 

 ing grounds. These ''haunted" gorillas, besides enor- 

 mous strength, have intelligence as great as man's. They 

 can neither be caught nor killed ; they are invulnerable, 

 even the balls from the white man's rifle flattening them- 

 selves upon them, — not because their hides are any 

 tougher than the others, but l^ecause they are protected 

 by a mysterious charm. According to these trustworthy 

 accounts some poor woman is compelled to act as com- 

 panion and servant to these fearful brutes. All day long 

 she grinds the meal, grates the cassava, and prepares the 

 food for her master. Should she endeavor to escape she 

 is immediately torn to pieces ; and that is the reason, so 

 these imperturbable liars assert, that not one of them has 

 ever been seen to come back. 



I should never end were I to tell you all the stories I 

 heard that night, for, spurred on by Thursday, each man 

 present wished to add his experience with haunted goril- 

 las to the general testimony. T have told enough to show 

 the character of the people among whom I was. Given 

 two possible explanations of an occurrence, one simple 

 and the other of a marvellous nature, the negro will 

 choose the latter every time, not from a desire to deceive 

 but simply to gratify his Tivid imagination. So you see 

 a traveller must take their statements, even on subjects 

 pertaining to their own country, which they ought to 

 know best, with a very large grain of salt. 



In spite of my wish to bring the conversation round to 



