310 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE OKAPT. [ Nov. 14, 
many a time heard it run away when he passed such glades as 
described above. 
The Okapi is extremely wary and shy, and nocturnal in its habits, 
It lives singly or perhaps in pairs, never in herds. The negroes 
know very little about it, and, as a rule, it is only the Wambutti- 
dwarfs who ave able to kill it. These dwarfs are perhaps the 
most perfect of all hunting tribes and steal up near the animals, 
slaying them with spears. 
How little the negroes (not counting the dwarfs) know about 
the Okapi, may be concluded from the following ridiculous tale told 
and believed by them. They have observed that the Okapi is very 
cleanly, and even during the rainy season, when almost all other 
animals are more or less dirty, its skin is justas clean as ever. The 
negroes say then that the Okapi climbs up in the trees (!) to keep 
itself clean and to avoid the dirty muddy soil. 
I have used the name Okapi as that is the one known to the 
zoological world, and has become the nomen triviale of this 
interesting mammal. Lieutenant Eriksson informs me, however, 
that it was only a mere chance that it happened so. Okapi (with 
long-drawn a) is only used by the Wambobba tribe for signifying 
this animal. ‘The Wambobba language is hardly spoken by more 
than 300 persons, but it was Wambutti- dwarts, living in harmony 
with Wambobbas and speaking their language * , that brought the 
first remains of the Okapi, hence the name. (The first complete 
specimens were procured by another tribe of Wambuttis belonging 
to Wabira negroes, which use another name mentioned below.) 
But it is still worse, because the word ‘ Okapi” means simply in 
the Wambobba language cs donkey ” or “ass.” Strictly speaking, 
therefore, the latinised “ Okapia,” which became the second and 
permanent scientific generic name of this mammal, is not much 
better with regard to its original meaning than the first generic 
term “* Equus,” applied before anything but a piece of skin was 
known. 
The name by which the Okapi is known in most of the Congo 
languages 1s ‘* Dumba.” 
Tam glad to be able to add that the Okapi is protected by law, 
-so that it is forbidden to kill it without special permission. 
The Wambutti-dwarfs and the leopards do not, however, respect 
any laws, and therein lies the danger for the existence of this 
animal. 
Lieutenant Eriksson has also told me that in the great forest a 
kind of black wild hog is to be found, which may be the recently 
deseribed Hylocherus meinertahagent. These hogs are called by 
the negroes ‘ n’gulube bibi,” which means “ black hog,” whilst 
“youlube” = hog is the name of the common Red River-Hog 
(Potamochwrus porcus). 
* The Wambuttis always use the language of those negro tribes with which they 
live in symbiosis, and from which they obtain vegetables. for meat and honey from 
the forest. 
