152 GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



similar manner, except that the boy had on no cloth- 

 ing of any kind, and the ape held him by the leg. 



During all these feats the man talked to him, as 

 far as I could tell, in the native language only, 

 though he declared to me that some of the words 

 that he had used were those of the ape s own speech. 

 However, he said that many words that the ape 

 knew were of the native speech, and that the ape 

 had no such words in his language. One thing that 

 especially impressed me was a sound which I have 

 elsewhere described as meaning "good" or ''satis- 

 faction," which this man said was the word which 

 these apes use to mean " mother." My own servant 

 had told me the same thing before, but I am still of 

 the opinion that they are mistaken in the meaning 

 of the sound, although it is almost exactly the same 

 as the word for mother in the native speech. The 

 difference being in the vowel element only, and it is 

 possible, I grant, that the word may have both 

 meanings. A little later one of the women came to 

 the door of a house and said, in the native language, 

 that something was ready to eat, whereupon the 

 children and the ape at once started. In the mean- 

 time she set an earthen pot, containing boiled 

 plantains, in front of the house, from which all the 

 children and the ape alike helped themselves. In 

 brief, the ape was a part of the family, and was so 

 regarded by all in the town. 



I do not know to what extent they may have played 

 upon my credulity, but, so far as I could discern, their 

 statements concerning the animal were verified. 



