MY FIRST GORILLA. 49 



looked him square in the face. The old hypocrite never 

 winced, and ended his remarks with a fresh demand for 

 rum, of which I gave him a very modest amount, dividing 

 what was left in my flask between him and Thursday. 



The first gorilla had fallen ; the chief had fulfilled his 

 promise ; and nothing remained but to return to the vil- 

 lage and end the chase. I made the chief the presents 

 I had agreed to, adding a little keg of rum for the other 

 natives who had accompanied me, and I stayed with 

 them a week. When I had made up my mind to depart 

 the chiefs collected to bid me farewell ; and then came a 

 ceremony which, among the Fans, celebrates the adop- 

 tion of a stranger by the tribe. The old chief held my 

 arm, and pricking it lightly with a thorn, drew a drop 

 of blood. He then did the same to his own ; whereupon 

 another chief took these two drops of blood upon two 

 little reeds and transferred them, his to mine and mine 

 to his arm. " Now," said the chief, "■ you are their 

 white brother, for you have become my son. Wherever 

 you may travel among the Fan tribes you will be re- 

 ceived as one of us." Among all peoples of a rude de- 

 gree of civilization this queer custom of adoption exists, 

 with different ceremonies but the same general idea; and 

 it appears even later among more civilized races in the 

 gift of the freedom of the city. There is no longer an 

 interchange of blood, but it is still the adoption of a 

 stranger. I have already alluded to the fact that, dur- 

 ing my stay in the village, although all the hunters 



