DISTBIBGTIOi), HABITS, AND NATIVE NAMES. 23o 



of the family remained at his ease, while his wife 

 and children plucked fruits for him from a small 

 tree which stood by, and if they were not sufficiently 

 nimble, or if they took too large a share for them- 

 selves, the old gorilla growled furiously and inflicted 

 a box on the ear. 



The gorilla is regarded as a dreadful and very 

 dangerous *nimal by the negroes who inhabit the 

 same country, and who themselves are often deficient 

 in spirit, while their tales of exaggerated horror 

 serve to increase their scanty fame as hunters. And 

 what even the luxuriant fancy of negroes could not 

 paint as sufficiently terrible has been exaggerated 

 by Du Chaillu for the benefit of his readers. We 

 will not here repeat these bloodthirsty tales, of 

 which Brehm justly says that they seem to have 

 been devised by an indifferent romance-writer, who 

 has given his pen free play.* In the letters to 

 Bastian, which are in my hands, Koppenfels has 

 endeavoured to modify the accounts of the alleged 

 ferocity of the gorilla. This appears in the frag- 

 ment of poetry given by that esteemed traveller in 

 one of his letters. 



The same author writes in another place; "As 

 long as the gorilla is unmolested he does not attack 

 men — and indeed, rather avoids the encounter." 

 These apes generally utter deep guttural sounds, 

 sometimes protracted like hh-eh, hh-eh, sometimes 

 roaring or growling. When the animal is scared by 

 man, he generally takes to flight screaming, and he 

 only assumes the defensive if wounded or driven 

 * niustnrtes Thierleben, i. 17 : Hildburghausen, 1864. 



