OTHER APES 



253 



hut there is not a trace of any true ape along it north 

 of Cameroon River, which empties into the sea 

 about 4° north of the equator. Here begins the 

 first trace of the chimpanzee. In passing along the 

 windward coast, casual reports are current to the 

 effect that gorillas and chimpanzees occupy the 

 interior north of there ; but when these reports are 

 sifted down to solid facts, it always turns out to be 

 a big baboon or monkey upon which the story rests. 

 Its likeness to man as described by Hanno was 

 doubtless the work of fancy, and the name troglodytes 

 which he gave to it shows that he knew but little of 

 its habits, or cared but little for the exactness of his 

 statements. 



The account given by Henry Battel, in 1590, 

 contains a thread of truth woven into a web of fan- 

 tasy. He must have heard the stories he relates, or 

 seen the specimens along the coast north of the 

 Congo, and there are certain facts which point to 

 this conclusion. The name pongo which he gave to 

 one of them belongs to the Fiot tongue, which is 

 spoken by the native tribes around Loango. Those 

 people apply the name to the gorilla, and is com- 

 monly understood to be synonymous with the name 

 njina, used by the tribes north of there, and always 

 applied to the gorilla. To me, however, it appears 

 to coincide with the name ntyii as used by the 

 Esyira people for another ape which is described in 

 the chapter devoted to gorillas. It was from Loango 

 that Dr. Falkenstein secured an ape under that 

 name in 1876. It is singular that Baron Wurmb, in 



