MR., MRS., AND MASTER GORILLA. 
83 
shoot it unawares, do not fear to attack it openly. As 
a rule, the larger the Simiad, the less sprightly it 
becomes ; and those most approaching man are usually 
the tamest and the most melancholy — perhaps, their 
spirits are permanently affected by their narrow escape. 
The elderly male (for anthropoids, like anthropoi, wax 
fierce and surly with increasing years) will fight, but 
only from fear, when suddenly startled, or with rage 
when slightly wounded. Moreover, there must be 
rogue-gorillas, like rogue-elephants, lions, hippopotami, 
rhinoceros, and even stags, vieux cjrognards, who, 
THE AFRICAN LEOPARD. 
expelled house and home, and debarred by the promis- 
ing young scions from the softening influence of 
feminine society, become, in their enforced widower- 
hood, the crustiest of old bachelors. At certain seasons 
they may charge in defence of the wife and family, but 
the practice is exceptional. Mr. Wilson saw a man 
who had lost the calf of his leg in an encounter ; and 
one Etia, a huntsman whose left hand had been 
severely crippled, informed Mr. W. Win wood Reade, 
that “ the gorilla seized his wrist with his hind foot, 
and dragged his hand into his mouth, as he would have 
done a bunch of plantains.” No one, however, could 
G 2 
