^14 



GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



It is certain that the gorilla is polygamous in 

 habit, and it is probable that he has an incipient idea 

 of government. Within certain limits he has a faint 

 perception of order and justice, if not of right and 

 wrong. I do not mean to ascribe to him the highest 

 attributes of man, or exalt him above the plane to 

 which his faculties assign him ; but there are reasons 

 to justify the belief that he occupies a higher social 

 and mental sphere than other animals, except the 

 chimpanzee. 



In the beginning of his career, in independent 

 life, the gorilla selects a wife with whom he ap- 

 pears to sustain the conjugal relations there- 

 after, and preserves a certain degree of marital fide- 

 lity. From time to time he adopts a new wife, but 

 does not discard the old one ; in this manner he 

 gathers around him a numerous family, consisting of 

 his wives and their children. " Each mother nurses 

 and cares for her own young, but all of them grow 

 up together as the children of one family. There is 

 no doubt that the mother sometimes corrects and 

 sometimes chastises her young, which suggests a 

 vague idea of propriety. The father exercises the 

 function 'of patriarch in the sense of a ruler, and the 

 natives call him ikomba njina, which means gorilla 

 king. To him the others all show a certain amount 

 of deference. Whether this is to fear or to 

 respect, however, is not certain,^^^ere is at least 

 the first principle of dignity. ^^^K 



The gorilla family, consistii^^^^Khis one adult 

 male and a number of females a^jFtheir young, are 



