520 THE SIMIiE OF THE OLD WORLD 



mode of offering defiance, meantime giving vent to roar after 

 roar. The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful 

 noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp bark 

 like an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll which 

 literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along 

 the sky, for which I have been sometimes tempted to take it 

 when I did not see the animal. So deep is it that it seems to 

 proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the deep 

 chest and vast paunch. His eye began to flash deeper fire as 

 we stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair 

 which stands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and 

 down, while his powerful fangs were shown as he again sent 

 forth a thunderous roar. 



" And now truly he reminded me of nothing but some hellish 

 dream-creature ; a being of that hideous order, half-man, half- 

 beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representa- 

 tions of the infernal regions. He advanced a few steps, then 

 stopped to utter that hideous roar again, advanced again, and 

 finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. 

 And here, just as he began another of his roars, beating his breast 

 in rage, we fired and killed him. With a groan which had 

 something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, 

 he fell forward on his face. The body shook convulsively for a 

 few minutes, the limbs moved about in a struggling way, and 

 then all was quiet — death had done its work, and I had leisure 

 to examine the huge body. It proved to be five feet eight inches 

 high, and the muscular developement of 

 the arms and breast showed what im- 

 mense strength he had possessed." 



Deep in the swampy forests of Su- 

 matra and Borneo, lives the famous 

 Uran, or " wild man of the woods " as 

 he is called by the Malays. He is less 

 human in his shape than the chimpanzee, 

 as his hind-legs are shorter and his arms 

 so long that they reach to his ankles, but in intelligence he is 

 supposed to be his superior. The jaws are more projecting, and 

 the thick pouting lips add to the brutal expression of his 

 physiognomy. While in a well-proportioned human face the 

 distance from the chin to the nose forms but a third of the total 



