CHAPTER IX 



Daily Life and Scenes in the Jungle — How I Passed the Time— * 

 What I Had to Eat — How it was Prepared — How I Slept — 

 My Chimpanzee Companion 



I AM so frequently asked about the details of my daily 

 life in the cage, how the time was occupied, and what 

 I saw besides the apes, that I deem it of interest to relate 

 a few of the events of my sojourn in that wild spot. I 

 shall, therefore, recount the incidents of a single day 

 and night ; but from day to day of course this routine 

 varied. 



About six o'clock, as the sun first peeps into the forest, 

 it finds me with a tin cup of coffee just made on a little 

 kerosene stove. It is black and dreggy, but with a little 

 sugar it is not bad. With a few dry crackers I break my 

 fast of twelve hours and am now ready for the task of the 

 day. My bed having been rolled up out of the way and 

 Moses helped to a banana or two, I take my rifle, Moses 

 climbs upon my shoulder, and we set out for a walk in the 

 bush. When we return we bring from the spring, some 

 three hundred yards away, a supply of water for the day. 

 Then Moses climbs about in the bushes and amuses him- 

 self, while I watch for gorillas. Silence is the order of 

 the day. And here I sit alone, — sometimes for hours, — 

 in a stillness almost as great as that of a tomb. 



73 



