DOMESTICATING MY GORILLA. 69 



whether man, who cannot create a spear of grass, has the 

 right to destroy life in all its forms around him, more 

 often to satisfy his whim than his necessity ; and whether 

 it really is his role here below to be continually breaking 

 those infinitel}^ fine links of the chain of destiny which 

 binds together all beings, all spheres, and all worlds. 



The next day I had the body buried at the foot of a 

 great tree, and made my preparations for departure, 

 thinking all the while, in spite of myself, of certain 

 theories of modern anthropologists, and wondering if I 

 had interrupted the development of a primate into a 

 human being. After a few hours' march I laughed at the 

 idea, but still I have always retained a singular recollec- 

 tion of Joseph's death, so like that of a young child. 



Aside from all question of sentiment, and to return to 

 the more healthy one of science, I may say, after due 

 inquiry and experiment, that I do not believe the gorilla 

 can be domesticated. There is such a wild strain of 

 ferocity in his nature that man's mind can have no in- 

 fluence on it. I tried a similar experiment on an older 

 gorilla which, so far as results went, proved the same as 

 the one I have already described, except that the subject 

 finally escaped. What might be the effect of confining a 

 pair of gorillas and bringing up their offspring in the cage 

 with them, I cannot say. After several generations had 

 been brought up in bondage there might be something 

 accomplished. But I consider it a fact beyond question 

 that the young gorilla cannot be tamed, and as for cap- 



