256 GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES 



" Ntyii be one : njina be one : all two be one, one. 

 Nytii 'e one mudder : jnina 'e one mudder : all two 

 'e one, one. Nytii e one fader : njina all same 'e 

 one fader, 'e one. 'E all two one fader." By which 

 the native means to say that the nytii has one mother 

 and the njina has one mother, so that the two have 

 two mothers, but both have one father, therefore 

 they are half-brothers. 



The other version given in denial of this statement 

 was as follows : 



" Nytii 'e one mudder : njina 'e one mudder. 'E 

 one, one. Nytii 'e one fader : njina e one fader. 

 'E be one, one. All two 'e one, one. Nytii 'im 

 mudder, njina 'im mudder. 'E brudder. Nytii 'im 

 fader, njina 'im fader 'e brudder. All two 'e one, one." 



The translation of this elegant speech is, that the 

 nytii has a mother, and the njina has a mother which 

 are not the same but sisters. The nytii has a father, 

 and the njina has a father which are not the same, 

 but are brothers, and therefore the two apes are only 

 cousins, which in the native esteem is a remote 

 degree of kinship. 



The ape described by Lopez certainly belonged 

 to the territory north of the Congo, which coast he 

 explored, and gave his name to a cape about forty 

 miles south of the equator, and it still bears the 

 name Cape Lopez. At that time, however, it is 

 probable that most of the low country now occupied 

 by these apes was covered with water ; that the 

 lakes of that region were then all embraced in one 

 great estuary, reaching from Fernan Vaz to Nazareth 



