AND AFFINITIES OF THE GORILLA. 265 



ture of the Gorilla, save the size and depth of the chest, to suggest or accord with this 

 peculiar action. Nor, were the dog as rare a beast, is there anything in its anatomy 

 that would have suggested, to one who had never seen it alive, its occasional habit of 

 running on three legs. In statements of this kind by a traveller, it is neither wise to 

 discredit nor implicitly to believe ; but one may acquiesce, and wait the report of suc- 

 ceeding observers whose attention has been directed to the original statement. Lacera- 

 tion of the abdomen and laying bare part of the intestines are described as the effects 

 of a blow of the immense hand of the Gorilla'. In an instance where the Negro hunter 

 had been so felled, the Ape vented its rage upon the musket^ This is a probable inci- 

 dent, and the power of the upper limb is equal to the alleged effect of its stroke. 

 Mr. du Chaillu also adduces the testimony of the natives, that, when stealing through 

 the gloomy shades of the tropical forest, they become sometimes aware of the proximity 

 of one of these frightfully formidable Apes by the sudden disappearance of one of their 

 companions, who is hoisted up into the tree, uttering, perhaps, a short choking cry. In 

 a few minutes he falls to the ground a strangled corpse. The Gorilla, watching his 

 opportunity, has let down his huge hind hand, seized the passing Negro by the neck 

 with vice-like grip, has drawn him up to higher branches, and dropped him when his 

 struggles had ceased. Describing the effect of contemplation of the recently killed 

 male, he writes : — " There is no doubt the Gorilla can do this, but that he does it I do 

 not believe. They are ferocious, mischievous, but not carnivorous^." The original 

 report, however, does not assign any other purpose in the strangulation of a Negro 

 pursuer or persecutor, except to kill him. In reference to the mode of attack described 

 by Du Chaillu, viz. " to strike one or two blows, leaving the prostrate victim," 

 Bowdich's brief hearsay testimony in the main accords with this direct one. In the 

 'Narrative of a Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee' (8vo, 1819), Bowdich 

 writes, in reference to the vicinity of the Gaboon, " The favourite and most extraordinary 

 subject of our conversation in natural history was the Ingena, an animal like the 

 Orang Outang, but much exceeding it in size, being 5 feet high and 4 across the 

 shoulders. Its paw was said to be even more disproportioned to its breadth, and one 

 blow of it to be fatal. It is commonly seen by them, when they travel to Kaybe, lurk- 

 ing in the bush to destroy passengers," (not to eat them, for) " it feeds principally on 

 wild honey, which abounds." 



The name Ngina or Gina, in the Mpongwe dialect (pronounced Nguyla by some of the 

 hunters in the interior of the Gaboon), together with the now known stature and strength 

 of arm of the Gorilla, satisfactorily show the true species of Ape to which Bowdich's 

 Negro gossips referred. Battel distinguishes the larger Ape {Pongo), of which he 

 heard while prisoner to the Portuguese in Angola, or wandering amongst the Negroes 

 of the interior, as being of a dunnish colour,from the smaller one (Enjreco), which is black. 



' Du Chaillu, 'Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa,' p. 287. 

 ' Ibid. ' lb. p. 277. 



