250 Mr., Mrs., a 7 id Master Gorilla. 
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 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 
grognards, who, expelled house and home, and 
debarred by the promising young scions from the 
softening influence of feminine society, become, in 
their enforced widowerhood', 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 
