82 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Mr. Benjamin Gaunt, “ beating the breast with huge 
fists till it sounded like an immense bass drum ; ” and 
preparing to deal a buffet worthy of Friar Tuck. They 
asked me if I thought mortal man would ever attempt 
to face such a thing as that ? With respect to drum- 
ming with both forehands upon the chest, some asserted 
that such is the brute’s practice when calling Mrs. 
Gorilla, or during the excitement of a scuffle ; but the 
accounts of the bushmen differ greatly on this point. 
THE MOHIEGO MBOUVE. 
In a hand-to-hand struggle it puts forth one of the 
giant feet, sometimes the hinder, as “Joe Gorilla ” was 
wont to do ; and, having once got a hold with its 
prehensile toes, it bites and worries like any other ape, 
baboon, or monkey. From this grapple doubtless arose 
the old native legend about the gorilla drawing- 
travellers up trees and “quietly choking them.” It 
can have little vitality, as it is easily killed with a bit 
of stone propelled out of a trade musket by the vilest 
gunpowder, and the timid bushmen, when failing to 
