294 NATURAL HISTORY OF AFRICA. 



and cameth his hands clasped on the nape of his neck when 

 he goeth upon the ground. They sleep in the trees, and build 

 shelters from the rain. They feed upon fruit that they find 

 in the woods, and upon nuts ; for they eat no kind of flesh. 

 They cannot speak, and appear to have no more understand- 

 ing than a beast. The people of the conntry, when they 

 travel in the woods, make fires where they sleep in the 

 night ; and in the morning, when they are gone, the pongos 

 Will come and sit about the fire till it goeth out ; for they 

 have no understanding to lay the wood together, or any 

 means to light it. They go many together, and often kill 

 the negroes that travel in the woods. Many times they fall 

 upon the elephants which come to feed where they be, and 

 so beat them with their clubbed fists, and with pieces of 

 wood, that they will run roaring away from them. Those 

 pongos are seldom or never taken alive, because they are so 

 strong that ten men cannot hold one of them ; but yet they 

 take many of their young ones with poisoned arrows. The 

 young pongo hangeth on his mother's belly, with his hands 

 fast clasped about her ; so that, when the country people kil! 

 any of the females, they take the one which hangeth fast 

 upon its mother, and, being thus domesticated and trained 

 up from their infant state, become extremely familiar and 

 tame, and are found useful in many employments about the 

 house." 



Purchas informs us, on the authority of a personal con- 

 versation with Battell, that a pongo on one occasion carried 

 off a young negro, who lived for an entire season in the so- 

 ciety of these anijnals ; that, on his return, the negro stated 

 they had never injured hun, but, on the contrary, were 

 greatly delighted with his company ; and that the females 

 especially showed a great predilection for him, and not only 

 brought him abundance of nuts and wild fruits, but carefully 

 and courageously defended him from the attacks of serpenta 

 and beasts of prey. 



With the exception of such information as has been 

 drawn from the oljservance of one or two young individuals 

 sent alive to Europe, our knowledge of this species has not 

 increased. We have become aware of the inaccuracy and 

 exaggeration of previous statements, but have not our- 

 selves succeeded in filling up the picture. It is indeed sin- 

 gular, that when the history of animals inhabiting New- 



