Mr., Mrs., and Master Gorilla. 251 
Etia, a huntsman whose left hand had been 
severely crippled, informed Mr. W. Winwood 
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 give me an authentic instance 
of manslaughter by our big brother. 
The modifications with which we must read the 
picturesque pages of the “ Gorilla Book ” are chiefly 
the following. The Gorilla is a poor devil ape, not a 
“ hellish dream-creature, half man, half beast.” He 
is not king of the African forest; he fears the 
Njego or leopard and, as lions will not live in 
these wet, wooded, and gameless lands, he can 
hardly have expelled King Leo. He does not 
choose the “ darkest, gloomiest forests,” but prefers 
the thin woods, where he finds wild fruits for him¬ 
self and family. His tremendous roar does not 
shake the jungle : it is a hollow apish cry, a loudish 
huhh ! huhh ! huhh ! explosive like the puff of a 
steam-engine, which, in rage becomes a sharp and 
snappish bark—any hunter can imitate it. Doubt¬ 
less, in some exceptional cases, when an aged 
mixture of Lablache and Dan Lambert delivers 
his voce di petto , the voice may be heard for some 
distance in the still African shades, but it will 
hardly compare with the howling monkeys of the 
Brazil, which make the forest hideous. The eye is 
not a “light grey” but the brown common to all the 
