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Another major book which prepared the advent of
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs


CHAPTER XXVI
STANLEY'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA:

Remarkable Scenery in Central Africa
Remarkable Scenery in Central Africa — Masses of Rocky Mountains —Foliage Bright
with all the Colors of the Rainbow — Rank Growths of Rushes and Grass — Varieties
of Animal Life — The Guinea fowl — The Sacred Ibis — The Long-legged Stork
and Heron — The Wonderful Shoebill— Primeval Forests and Running Streams —
Fine Specimens of Flowers — Perpetual Moisture — The Negro's Taste for
Honey —The Fish-eagle — Majestic Flight — An Old Bird— The Eagle Contending
for its Mate — Remarkable Claws — Turtle Doves and Golden Pheasants—Crows
and Hawks — Fairy Antelopes — Grave-looking Monkeys — Beautiful Valleys and
Hillsides — The Beautiful in Nature Marred by Human Cruelty — Cities Built by
Insects— Waves of Rolling Land — Villages of African Tribes — Stanley's Descrip-
tion of Tanganyika — Remarkable Lake — Lovely Landscape — A Native Bird —
Famous Ibis — A Feathered Idol — Stanley's Glowing Description of Tropical
Scenery — Desert of Sahara — Terrific Sand Storms — Whirlwinds of Dust— Fire
in the Air — Extraordinary Storm Pillars — Remarkable Reptile Tribes — The
Curious Gekko — Brilliant Insects— The Traveller's Pests — Remarkable Trees
and Plants— The Wild Ox -The Wild Pig— Ten Kinds of Antelopes— Elegant
Animals— Swift Punishment — Famous Gorilla — Inveterate Thieves — Quick Re-
treat — The Orang-outang — Arms Longer Than Legs — Formidable Foe — Pursuit
of the Orang-outang — Swinging Easily from Tree to Tree — Expert Climber —
Hiding Among the Leaves — The Young Orang — A Motherly Goat— Clever
Monkey — Saucy Pet — A Little Thief— An Animal Very Human.
STANLEY gives the following description of the scenery of Central
Africa : Unyamwezi is a wide undulating table-land, sinking west-
ward toward Tanganyika. Any one taking a bird's-eye view of
the land would perceive forests, a purple-hued carpet of foliage,
broken here and there by barren plains and open glades, extending
toward every quarter of the heavens. Here and there rise masses of
rocky mountains, towering like blunt cupolas above the gentle undula-
tions of the land, on to the distant horizon. Standing upon any pro-
jecting point, a scene never before witnessed meets the view. Nothing
picturesque can be seen ; the landscape may be called prosaic and
monotonous ; but it is in this very overwhelming, apparently endless,
monotony that its sublimity lies.

The foliage is bright with all the colors of the prism ; but as the
woods retreat towards the far distance, a silent mystical vapor enfolds
them, and bathes them first in pale, and then in dark blue, until they are
lost in the distance. But near the lake all is busy life. The shore
immediately adjoining the Lake of Ugogo is formed by a morass of at
least sixty feet wide, and extending on every side. It is an impenetrable
tangle of luxuriant sedge and rushes, where the unwieldy hippopotamus,
going his nightly rounds, has left his watery footsteps imprinted in the
swamp. Numerous buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, boars, kudu antelopes,
and other animals come here at nightfall to quench their thirst.

The shores and surface of the lake are alive with an amazing number
of aquatic birds — black swans, ducks, sacred ibises, cranes, and pelicans ;
high overhead, watchful for their prey, hover kites and fish eagles ; while
the shore is vocal with the loud call of the guinea-fowl, the hoarse scream
of the toucan, the cooing of the pigeons, the hoot of the owl mingling
with the cry of the snipe and wild fowl rising from the long grass by the
water's edge. These shores are also the paradise of the long-legged
stork and the heron, the saddle stork, the marabout, an ugly bird, in
spite of its wonderful and costly feathers, the giant heron, while the
curious stilt-bird, or shoebill, of Africa, one of the most singular birds
of the globe, inhabits the more northern marshlands, vast impenetrable
morasses of the White Nile, and some of its tributaries. This bird has a
bulky body, a thick neck, a large head and a curiously formed bill, not
unlike a clumsy wooden shoe. Its color is an ashy gray, with jet black
wing feathers.

The shoebill is the giant of the wading birds and is found in pairs or
smaller societies as remote as possible from human habitations, mostly in
the impenetrable swamps f)f the White Nile and some of its tributaries.
At the approach of man it flies away, and when frightened by shots it
rises to a great altitude and never returns to its swamps as long as there
is any suspicion of danger. This bird selects for its breeding place a
small elevation in the reeds, either immediately on the border of the
water or in the swamp, mostly where surrounding water renders an
approach difficult.

Wonderful Luxuriance.

The flora concentrates all its luxuriance in the first months of the rainy
season, leaving the autumn, when the grass of the steppes is withered, to
fare less richly. The scenery varies much less than in the most mo-
notonous districts of our own country, but it has nevertheless its alter-
nation of clustering groves of bushes, its clearings with noble trees more
than thirty or forty feet in height, its luxuriant undergrowth broken by
grassy reaches or copses of tall shrubs.

Palms play a subordinate part in this scenery ; the fan palms are found
clustered together in groves ; and in the marshy steppes grows the
prickly date, perhaps the primitive type of the date palm. Then come
the leather-leaved fig trees of every kind, and among them the grandest
monuments of African vegetation, the sycamores, together with large-
leaved tamarinds.

Very characteristic of the country are the patches of primeval forests,
watered by running streams, and known by the name of galleries. The
soil is unusually rich in springs of water, which keep up a perpetual
overflow of the brooks ; and while in the northern districts the rivers
have to find their way across open lowlands where the volume of water
soon diminishes, and is lost in the parched earth, the country here is like
a well-filled sponge. The result of this abundant moisture is that the
valleys and fissures of the earth through which the water flows, whether
in the form of little brooks and streamlets, or of great rivers, are clothed
with all the majesty of a tropical forest; while an open park-like glade,
the chief feature of which appears at the first glance to be the amazing
size of its foliage, fills up the higher-lying spaces between the water-
courses and the galleries. The number of distinct types of trees, and
the variety of forms among th^ undergrowth, is very great. Trees with
large trunks, whose height throws into the shade all the previously seen
specimens of the Nile flora, not excluding the palms of Egypt, are here
found in serried ranks, without a break, and beneath their shelter the
less imposing platforms are arranged in terraces.

Magniflcent Forests.

In the interior of thesp virgin forests, leafy corridors, rivalling the
temple walls of Egypt, lie veiled in deep perpetual shadow, and are
spanned by a triple roof of foliage, rising vault above vault. Seen from
without, the galleries appear like an impenetrable wall of the densest
leafage, while from within corridors of foliage open out in every direction
beneath the columns of the tree stems, and are filled with the murmuring
voice of springs and water-courses.

The average height of the roof of leaves measures from seventy-five to
ninety feet; but very often these galleries, seen from without, by no
means produce the imposing effect which is felt from within in looking up
from the depth of the valley or the: water-side; because in many places
the depression of land or water which makes up the gallery or tunnel-like
i character of the scene scarcely allows half of the forest to rise above the
level ground, many galleries being entirely sunk in the depression.
Great tree trunks, thickly overgrown with wild pepper, rise from the
depths, and support wide-spreading branches draped with lichens and
mosses, above which towers the remarkably fine tree called the elephant's

STANLEY'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 585

ear, which grows in rich abundance. High up on the branches are seen
the very large nests built by the " tree-termite."

Other tree stems, long since dead, serve as supports for colossal vines,
and with their impenetrable festoons form bowers as large as houses, in
which perpetual darkness reigns. From the depths of the brushwood
gleam flame-red blossoms, and rivalling them in splendor are seen tall
shrubs bearing large orange bell flowers. The eyes may roam in every
direction, and meet with nothing but this unbroken impenetrable greenery.
There where the narrow pathways wind along, partly through and partly
under the tangle of shrub and bush ascending the valley wall, bare roots
of trees form the supports which hold the loose friable earth together.
Mouldering trunks, covered with thick mosses, are met with at every
step, and make our advance through these waves of massive greenery
anything but easy. The air we breathe is no longer that of the free sun-
lit steppe, or of the cool leafy paths without; it is the heavy, humid
atmosphere of our green- houses. There prevails a constant moisture,
produced by the breath of the woods itself, and which it is impossible to
escape.

A Taste for Honey.

The Negroes belonging to the caravan, while prowling through the
backwoods in search of anything eatable, lighted here upon an important
discovery; their cry of triumph guided us to the place where they stood
clustered together round a tree, very busy with their firebrands. They
bad discovered in the hollow stem a large quantity of honey, and were
preparing to secure their treasure with great indifference to the results of
their attack. Honey, wax, and even the little bodies of the honey-
makers slain in the combat, were swallowed down by the Negroes with-
out any distinction.

One of the birds peculiar to some parts of Central Africa, and men-
tioned by Stanley, is the fish-eagle. The best known and largest is the
white-headed eagle. The length is about three feet, and the extent of
wings seven feet ; the female is somewhat larger. Its usual food is fish,
but it eats the flesh of other animals, when it can get it and often seizes
quadrupeds and birds of inferior flight, and when pressed by hunger will
feed on carrion. The flight of this bird is very majestic ; it sails along
with extended wings and can ascend until it disappears from view, with-
out any apparent motion of the wings or tail ; and from the greatest
height it descends with a rapidity, which can scarcely be followed by the
eye. The power of wing is not more remarkable than the consummate
skill with which the strong pinions are made to cut the air.

These birds live to a great age. They are generally seen in pairs and
the union seems to last for life. The attachment of the old birds to their
young is very great. The breeding season commences about March and
though each male has but one mate during its entire life, many and fierce
are the battles, which arise about the possession of these spouses. It is
a singular circumstance in the formation of this bird that the outer toe
turns easily backward, so as on occasion to have two of the toes forward
and two backward, and it has a much larger claw than the inner one.
This, and the roughness of the whole foot underneath, are well adapted
for the securing of its prey. During the spring and summer months the
osprey is frequently seen hovering over the rivers for minutes without
visible change of place. It then suddenly darts down and plunges into
the water, whence it seldom rises again without a fish in its talons. When
it rises in the air it shakes off the water and pursues its way towards the
woods.

In one part of his first expedition, Stanley refers to the attractive views
which greeted him on every side.

Forest-clad Slopes and Beautiful Valleys.

Our traveller was now fairly in the midst of African scenes. The
wilderness was broken only by the little villages which everv now and
then appeared peeping through the crevices of their wonderful fortresses
of acacia, and the people were fully up to the average in genuine African
characteristics.

Crossing the Ungerengeri, a beautiful river with a broad fertile valley,
and passing through the narrow belt of country which is all that is left
to the warlike remnants of the once powerful Wakami tribe, the
intrepid traveller entered the territory of the Wadoe, a people full
of traditions, who have always defended themselves bravely against
the encroachments of neighbors and the invasions of marauders. The
region they inhabit might well have been guarded hy them with jealous
courage.

Speaking of it, Mr. Stanley says: It is in appearance amongst the most
picturesque countries between the coast and Unyanyembe. Great cones
shoot upward above the everlasting forests, tipped by the light fleecy
clouds, through which the warm glowing sun darts its rays, bathing the
whole in a quickening radiance which brings out those globes of foliage
that rise in tier after tier along the hill-sides in rich and varied hues
which would mock the most ambitious painter's skill. From the wind-
ing paths along the crest of ridges the traveller may look down over
forest-clad slopes into the deep valleys, and across to other slopes as
nymph's skin gayly clad, and other ridges where deep concentric folds tempt him to
curious wanderings by their beauty and mystery and grandeur. But
those lovely glades and queenly hills told saddest stories of cruel deeds
and wrongs irreparable. It is the old story: envious evil eagerly
invades with its polluting presence those sacred spots where all is
loveliest ; infernal malice mars with strange delight what is beautiful and
pure.

Cities Built by Insects.

Further on the caravan passed through the thin forests adorned with
myriads of marvellous ant-hills, those wonderful specimens of engineer-
ing talent and architectural capacity, those cunningly contrived, model
cities, with which the tiny denizens of African wilds astonish the traveller
continually; and on across plains dotted with artificial-looking cones and
flat-topped, isolated mountains, and through marshy ravines, where every
unlucky step insured a bath in Stygian ooze — the various scenes of south-
ern Ukonongo —

" Where the thorny brake and thicket
Densely fill the interspace
Of the trees, through whose thick branches
Never sunshine lights the place" —

The abode of lions and leopards and elephants and wild boars, one of
those splendid parks of the wilderness where majestic forests and
jungles, and lawn-like glades, and reedy brakes and perilous chasms
all unite to form that climax of wildness and beauty, " the hunter's
paradise." It was just the place to arouse all the Nimrod spirit a man
possesses, and the two days of rest were turned to good account by
Mr. Stanley in testing the virtue of his fine rifles on the masters of the
domain.

The surface stratum of the country is clay, overlying the sandstone,
based upon various granites, which in some places crop out, picturesquely
disposed in blocks and boulders and huge domes and lumpy masses ;
ironstone is met with at a depth varying from five to tvvelve feet, and
bits of coarse ore have been found in Unyanyembe by digging not more
than four feet in a chance spot.

Waves of Rolling Land.

Duririg the rains the grass conceals the soil, but in the dry seasons the
land is gray, lighted up by golden stubbles, and dotted with wind -dis-
torted trees, shallow swamps of emerald grass, and wide streets of dark
mud. Dwarfed stumps and charred "blackjacks" deform the fields,
which are sometimes ditched or hedged in, whilst a thin forest of para-
chute-shaped thorns diversifies the waves of rolling land and earth hills.
spotted with sunburnt stone. The reclaimed tracts and clearings are
divided from one another by strips of primeval jungle, varying from two
to. twelve miles in length, and, as in other parts of Africa, the country is
dotted with " fairy mounts " — dwarf mounds — the ancient sites of trees
now crumbled to dust, and the debris of insect architecture. Villages, the
glory of all African tribes, are seen at short intervals rising only a little
above their impervious walls of lustrous green milk-bush, with its coral-
shaped arms, variegating the well-hoed plains ; whilst in the pasture
lands herds of many-colored cattle, plump, round-barrelled and high-
humped, like Indian breeds, and mingled flocks of goats and sheep,
dispersed over the landscape, suggest ideas of barbarous comfort and
plenty.

It is astonishing what luxury is conveyed into the heart of Africa by
Arab merchant-princes. The fertile plain about their villages, kept in
the highest state of cultivation, yields marvellous abundance and endless
variety of vegetables, and supports vast herds of cattle, and sheep and
goats innumerable; while just above the houses the orange, lemon,
papaws and mangoes may be seen thriving finely.

Add to these the tea, coffee, sugar, spices, jellies, curries, wine, brandy,
biscuits, sardines, salmon, and such fine cloths as they need for their
own use, brought from the coast every year by their slaves ; associate
these with a wealth of Persian carpets, most luxurious bedding, complete
services of silver for tea and coffee, with magnificently carved dishes of
tinned copper and brass lavers; and we have a catalogue out of which
our imagination produces pictures of luxury that, amid the wildness and
rudeness of that barbarous land, seem more like the magician's work
than tangible realities, which await the worn-out traveller across six hun-
dred miles of plains and mountains and rivers and swamps, where a suc-
cession of naked, staring, menacing savages throng the path in wonder
at a white face.

A further description of some of the tropical birds mentioned by
Stanley will prove of interest to the reader who wishes to obtain a cor-
rect idea of the wonders abounding in Africa.

A Native Bird.

Guinea-hens are peculiar to Africa, where they frequent woods on the
banks of rivers, in large flocks. They feed on grains, grasshoppers and
other insects. When alarmed they attempt to escape by running, rather
than by flight. The common guinea-hen is slate colored, covered all
over with round white spots and is about the size of the common fowl.
They are very noisy and troublesome, always quarreling with the other
inmates of the poultry yard, and they are hard to raise from the delicacy
of the young and their liability to disease.

Their flesh is of fine flavor and their eggs are excellent. They are
great feeders, requiring to be fed beyond what they can pick up by them-
selves, and are apt to injure tender buds and flowers. The crested guinea-
fowl or pintado has a crest of black feathers and the body black with blue
spots ; the mitred pintado has the head surmounted by a conical helmet
and is black, white spotted.

The four species of pintado hitherto known are all natives of Africa and
of islands adjacent to the African coast. Their mode of feeding is similar
to that of the domestic poultry. They scrape the ground with their feet
in search of insects, worms or seeds. The females lay and hatch their
eggs nearly in the same manner as the common hens. The eggs, how-
ever, are smaller and have a harder shell. Buffon states that there is a
remarkable difference between the eggs of the domestic guinea-fowls and
those which are wild ; the latter being marked with small round spots,
like those on the plumage of the birds, and the former being, when first
laid, of a quite bright red and afterwards of the faint color of the dried
rose.

The young birds, for sometime after they come into the world, are des-
titute of the helmet or callous protuberance, which is so conspicuous on
the heads of the old ones. The guinea-fowl is a restless and clamorous
bird. During the night it perches on high places and if disturbed,
alarms every animal within hearing by its cry. These birds delight in
rolling themselves in the dbst for the purpose of ridding themselves of
insects.

The Famous Ibis.

This is another African bird. There are about half a dozen species of
this wading bird, including three in the United States. The red or
scarlet ibis is about twenty-eight inches long, its bill six and one-half
inches, and the extent of its wings a little over three feet. This bird,
whose color is a uniform bright scarlet, is found in South America and
the West Indies, The white ibis, or white curlew, whose plumage is
pure white, is very common in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf States,
occasionally straggling as far north as New Jersey. Its flesh has a very
fishy taste and is rarely eaten except by the Indians.

The glossy ibis, a smaller species, is about twenty-one inches long.
Its general color is chestnut-brown, with the back and top of h^ad
metallic green, glossed with purple. It exists in great numbers in
Mexieo and has been found as far north as Massachusetts. Of this genus
there are about twenty species found in the warmer parts of Africa, Asia
and South America, one of which is the Sacred Ibis of the Egyptians.
It is about as large as a domestic fowl, and is found throughout Northern
Africa.

This bird, which was reared In the temples of ancient Egypt and was
embalmed, frequents overflowed lands and dry plains and feeds on frogs
and small aquatic lizards. It is a migratory bird, appearing simulta-
neously with the rise of the Nile and departing as the inundation
subsides. It is a remarkable fact, that the ibis does not visit Egypt
regularly any more as of old, breeding in the Soudan. As soon as it-
arrives there it takes possession of its well-selected breeding places, from
which it undertakes excursions in search of prey. It is not afraid of the
natives and can often be seen among the cattle herds picking up a grass-
hopper here and a frog or lizard there. Dr. Brehm met, on his travels
up the Blue Nile, so many of this beautiful bird, that he was able to kill
twenty of them within two days. The female lays three to four white
eggs of the size of duck eggs. The bird is easily domesticated and is
found in many zoological gardens of Europe and America.

A Feathered Idol.

In Egypt the ibis was regarded with great veneration by the ancients,
who kept them in their temples, and embalmed them after their death;
thousands of their remains are still found in the burial places amid the
ruins of ancient Egypt. Various reasons have been given for this cus-
tom, some saying that the ibis destroyed the noxious serpents which
were so numerous in that country ; others that there was supposed to be
some analogy between the plumage of the bird and one of the phases of
themOon; while a third opinion is that the birds were regarded with;
favor, because, their annual migration into Egypt taking place at the
period of the rising of the Nile, they were considered as the harbingers
of that event.

Stanley's glowing descriptions of tropical scenery find a striking con-
trast of the account given of the African desert, and the perils which
often overtake travellers who attempt to cross it.

The plain of Sahara is the gieat typical desert. Its name comes from
an Arabic word, which means the plain. Not that the great desert is by
any means an unbroken plain, or destitute of great variety in its physical
characteristics. The true sandy desert occupies but a relatively small
portion of the space marked upon our maps as the desert of Sahara ; and
even upon the surface of this " true " desert the distribution of sand is
very unequal. The stratum of the sand in some parts is so thin that the-

STANLEY'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 595

underlying limestone is visible through it. The sandy region attains its
greatest extent in the Libyan desert, and masses of sand still drift in
from the Mediterranean, to settle down upon a bed which in a recent
period was buried beneath the waves of the sea. These sand floods
extend westward to Tripoli. Near that town the sandy stretches are
varied by plantations of palm trees and fields of corn ; true deserts of
yellow sand, passing like a yellow ribbon from west to east, between fields
wheat and barley.

Terrific Sand-storms,

The western Mongolian desert contains plains of sand perfectly corres-
ponding with those of the Sahara and the Arabian desert. Mounds of
loose sand are blown together and scattered again by the wind : a mere
breeeze is enough to wipe out all trace of a long caravan crossing the
waste. The sand is so extremely fine and light, that in sudden storms
of wind trenches of thirty or forty feet deep are hollowed out, and
swelling waves are raised like those of the Libyan desert, making the
journey tedious and difficult to the camels as they cross the shifting
plain.

It is true that large stretches of the plain of Sahara are covered by
waves of sand, which were once sandy bars and dykes of the sea ; but the
whole desert is by no means the product of the ocean alone. Very much
of the sand is of local origin, formed from the soil of the desert plain by
the sudden changes of temperature and the action of the wind There
are many such centres of sand radiation, and the mechanically powdered
fragments of rock are found in every phase of transition from crumbled
stone to fine drift-sand. The ground above Khartoum, to the west
of the Nile, consists partly of rose-colored granite, and the whole
surface, of the rifted slope of rock is bestrewn with fragments of different
sizes.

Dust whirlwinds of considerable size are sometimes observed in the
Russian steppes ; but the best known phenomena of this kind are the
high sand pillars of Sahara. Even in Australia these rotary dust pillars
are met with, generally being seen upon shadowless plains. It is thought
that these Australian whirlwinds are the channels which carry the heated
air from the ground to the higher strata.

Fiery Wind.

Instead of the rolling waves and cool breezes of the sea, this funereal
region only gives out burning gusts, scorching blasts which seem to issue
from the gates of hell ; these are the simoon or poison-wind, as the word
signifies in Arab. The camel-driver knows this formidable enemy, and

596 WONDERS OF THE TROPICS.

so soon as he sees it looming in the horizon, he raises his hands to
heaven, and implores Allah ; the camels themselves seem terrified at its
approach. A veil of reddish-black invades the gleaming sky, and very-
soon a terrible and burning wind rises, bearing clouds of fine impalpable
sand, which severely irritates the eyes and throat.

The camels squat down and refuse to move, and the travellers have no
chance of safety except by making a rampart of the bodies of their beasts,
and covering their heads so as to protect themselves against this scourge.
Entire caravans have sometimes perished in these sand-storms ; it was
one of them that buried the army of Cambyses when it was traversing
the desert.

Camp, in his charming work on the Nile, describes in the following
terms one of these desert tempests. It comes towards one, he says,
growing, spreading, and advancing as if on wheels. Its overhanging
summit is of a brick color, its base deep red and almost black. In pro-
portion as it approaches it drives before it burning effluvia, like the breath
of a lime-kiln. Before it reaches us we are covered with its shadow.
The sound it makes is like that of a wind passing through a pine-forest.
So soon as we are in the midst of this hurricane the camels halt, turn
their backs, throw themselves down, and lay their heads upon the sand.
After the cloud of dust comes a rain of imperceptible stones, violently
hurled about by the wind, and which, if it lasted long, would quickly flay
the skin from those parts of the body unprotected by the clothes. This
lasted five or six minutes, and was frightful. Then the sky became clear
again, and gave the same feeling of sudden change to the eye as a light
suddenly brought into a dark place.

Extraordinary Storm Pillars.

Whirlwinds are generally preceded by a sultry, oppressive air ; some-
times by absolute calm ; but the state of the wind never appears clearly
connected with the phenomena. The storm pillars vary greatly in form,
the sand columns being generally funnel-shaped, and the water-spouts
like a pipe surrounded at the base by whirling vapors and foaming water.
The height and diameter are also variable ; some of the highest have
been estimated at 6,000 feet. In many cases the damage caused by the
water is of such a kind as to show that there has been an influx of air
from every side toward the base of the column.

But hurricanes, cyclones, and all the rush and roar of the elements,
are not more wonderful than the curious forms of animal and insect life
abounding in the Dark Continent.

The reptile tribe is represented here by some of its most distinguished
members. The monitor-lizard crawls along the river banks ; the moun-
tain-monitor frequents the desert; a beautiful turtle lives in the Nile.
Along the furrows and trenches, nimble bright-colored lizards bask in
the sun, and the slippery skink burrows in the wall of almost every
house. Along the walls of the houses dart and glide the nocturnal little
gekkoes, the greedy but otherwise inoffensive "fathers of leprosy."
Here and there upon the trees is seen the changeful play of color of the
familiar chameleon, while other reptiles, often brightly- colored, and some
of them more than a yard long, love the desert solitudes. Egypt was
always famous as the land of snakes. It has about twenty varieties,
poisonous and non-poisonous. As in the days of Moses, so in our own
times, there are a large number of snake charmers; the snakes which
they use in their performances, especially the once sacred viper, urau
snake, and the Egyptian spectacle snake, are always first deprived of
their fangs. The snake most frequently depicted by the ancients is the
very deadly and dangerous horned viper.

Brilliant Insects.

In the great insect world Africa has many forms which are known in
other parts of the world. Day butterflies are scarce, while moths are
more abundant. The beetles are not exactly numerous, but among them
are some very fine specimej;is of brilliant beetles, sand beetles, and derm-
estes. The commonest are the blackbeetles, but the best known of all is
the sacred scarabee beetle of Egypt, which is so frequently represented
upon monuments and gems.

A characteristic scene of animal life, often to be observed both in Cen-
tral and South Africa, are the manoeuvres of a company of these droll
little creatures busily employed rolling up manure into globes as large as
a walnut, pushing and thrusting each other aside until the great business
is completed, and then, with their heads bent down to the earth, rolling
away the work of their feet to bury it in a convenient place. The beetle
rolls up these balls to feed its young, and deposits its eggs in them. In
the theological symbolism of the ancient Egyptians, these " pills " are
compared to the substance of which the world was formed, and which
was also represented as globular. The beetle itself is looked upon as the
principle of light and creative force, which, in union with the sun, infuses
into matter the germs of light and creation, as the beetle deposits its eggs
in the ball. The deity Ptah (that is, the forming and impelling force)
then gives to these germs their form, and creates the heavens and the
earth.

The wasp tribe is also represented by many fine and large varieties.
The bee is nearly akin to our own, and has often been introduced into
other countries. Ants, locusts, and cockroaches are at times great pests.
The common house-fly is nowhere more bold and importunate, and suc-
ceeds only too completely in rendering an otherwise pleasant life most
disagreeable. The stinging gnat is just as bad, and its unceasing hum is
almost more calculated to drive a new-comer to despair than its painful,
burning sting.

At certain times its worm-like larvae abound in all standing waters,
swarm in the drinking water, which can only be drunk when strained
through a cloth, or, as is the usual practice with the poorer classes
through the coat-sleeve held between the pitcher and the lips. Vermin,
are only too abundantly represented ; fleas, bugs, and lice of every kincf
abound, besides scorpions, tarantulas, centipedes, and leeches, and those
implacable tormentors of animals, horse-flies and gnats. The monoto-
nous character of the whole country is perceptible throughout its flora
and fauna, for in almost every class of the animal world the number or
varieties is comparatively small.

Brambles and Donkeys.

We now turn our attention to the country lying eastward toward the
Red Sea. The path lies through a desert, which is not, however, wholly
destitute of vegetation ; where, after abundant rain, the valleys are trans-
formed into verdant pasture lands. The vegetation is most abundant from
February to April, but the almost tropical heat destroys one plant after
another, leaving only the more deeply rooted growths for the summer
months. The plateau-like western portion of the desert resembles, both
in its appearance and vegetation, the Libyan desert, and is very poor in.
vegetable life. By far the most common plant of these regions is the
desert bramble, a half-shrub, with flowers like its kindred plant, the
radish ; it is this plant especially which, when seen from afar, gives to the
valley the appearance of green meadow-land.

The wise Egyptian donkey, nothwithstanding the preference shown by
his European kindred for thistles, is prudent enough to keep at a respect-
ful distance from this plant, which the hard-mouthed dromedary can eat
with great relish ; chewing the prickly masses without losing one drop of
blood ; he even swallows with delight the thorns of the acacia. In many-
places a plant resembling broom grows freely; it is a long branched,
almost leafless bush, much liked by camels.

Shadowy groves of tamarisk, frequented by many birds and insects,
often surprise us in the midst of the most barren solitudes ; and wherever
the soil has received any moisture, willows and rushes refresh the eye of
the traveller. Cassia ranks high among the list of medicinal plants found
in the desert, and colocynth, with its creeping cucumber-like stems, filled
with fruit resembling our apple, first green and then turning yellow, is
found along all the outskirts of the valleys. The natives have a whole-
some awe of the drastic remedy, and scarcely ever touch the gourd fruit;
while the Bedouins remove the inside pith and seeds, and fill it with milk,
to take it next day as a remedy.

The date palm, it is true, is seldom seen, and then only in a half-wild-
state ; but the fig tree is found laden with fruits. The fruit of the caper
tree tastes like an odd mixture of sugar and mustard ; and the traveller
is refreshed by the pleasant acid of the sorrel, the berries of .the lycium,
a thorny plant. The coast flora of the desert is very peculiar, and depends
upon the salt vapors rising from the sea. The dense woods of the shore
are famous in travellers' descriptions; they stand out in the sea itself, and
are only dry at low tide. Ships are laden with its wood, which is used
for fuel, and many camels live entirely on its great laurel-like leaves. The
coast is covered in some places to great distances by saltpetre shrubs,
and by many other saline plants.

The traveller who is forced to provide himself with food by his rifle in
the chase devotes his attention chiefly to the wild oxen, wild pigs, and
-different kinds of antelopes which provide him with eatable food when
there are no tame creatures, such as goats, sheep, fowl, and fish, to be
met with. The latter case, however, is seldom experienced, for domestic
animals are sure to be found wherever there are Negro settlements.

The wild ox is the same as the short-horned breed, also found in
East Africa. The wild pig, which is also found, and frequently makes its
appearance in herds, is known as the long-eared pig. Its color is a dark
yellowish red. The flesh is pleasant as food, and is liked also by Negroes.
The wild pigs are generally caught by the help of spears and pits dug to
?ensnare them. These traps make certain parts of the woods rather dan-
gerous to walk in, and the traveller has to submit blindly to his guides,
who are taken from the adjoining neighborhood, and who know exactly
where such traps are laid. In the east and the south, this " most beauti-
ful of all possible pigs " is replaced by the bush pig, while the whole of
Central Africa is the home of the clumsiest and ugliest of all known bristly
animals, the wart-hog.

Elegant Animals.

There are at least ten kinds of antelopes in the forests of Gaboon and
"the district of the Ogowe, from the elegant little dwarf antelope, which
stands scarcely twenty inches high, to the white-striped antelope of Bango,
which reaches the size of a fallow deer. Large herds of these animals,
which are so frequently found in the open plateaus of Central Africa, are
naturally unknown in the dense woods of the western part of the con-
tinent. From the exceptional character of the animals, their extreme
shyness and speed, they are very hard to capture in the chase, and even
the Negroes generally catch them only in pits. Indeed, a successful
hunt, with a large amount of booty, is a very rare occurrence. Although
the woods are filled with game, the traveller seldom comes across them,
and it is a mistaken notion to imagine that one has but to enter the high
woods of the Tropics, and fire away right and left, in order to bring home
an abundance of food.

Of the larger beasts of prey, the leopard is represented ; it is met with
all along the west coast, and is erroneously termed a tiger. It is very
abundant in certain districts, and particularly dangerous to the herds of
goats and flocks of sheep belonging to the factors and the Negroes ;
indeed, it sometimes attacks men. When our traveller was spending a
few days in a village of Banschaka, it happened that a woman who went
late at night to a well about half a mile from the huts did not return, and
on the following day evident traces of the disaster were discovered. It
was, as usual, firmly believed among all the Negroes of the west coast,
that the event was not in the natural order of things, but that some one
an the village, transformed into a leopard, had devoured the woman.

Swift Punislinient.

The family of the unhappy woman went to the priest and magician of
the place, who soon discovered the culprit, and sentenced him to eat the
poisonous bark of a tree, which paralyzes the action of the heart, and
occasions certain death if it is not speedily expelled from the system.

It may be readily imagined that accidents frequently occur in the great
African hunts, as it is quite impossible to speculate upon the species of
animals that may be driven into the net. One day a native was suddenly
attacked and was killed by a leopard within a mile of my station.
The grass had been fired, and the animals instinctively knew that they
were pursued.

The man went to drink at a stream close to some high bushes, when a
leopard pounced upon him without the slightest warning. A native who
was close to the spot rushed up to the rescue, and threw his spear with
such dexterity that he struck the leopard through the neck while it had
the man in its mouth, killing it upon the spot. The man was immedi-
ately broughtto me, but the lungs were lacerated, and he died during the
night.

On another occasion five men were wounded (two fatally) by a lioness,
which fought so gallantly that she at length escaped from her assailants
with two spears in her body. I was not present on that occasion, but I
have frequently admired the pluck of the natives, who attack every
animal with the simple hunting-spear, which of course necessitates a close
approach.

The Negroes eat everything in the shape of flesh, except the feline
beasts of prey. Some of the smaller kinds of felines are as dangerous
to poultry as are the large species of falcons and eagles. With respect
to several kinds of flesh which are considered by us to be uneatable, we
may say that different kinds of monkeys, porcupines, large rats, croco-
diles, and other creatures, are used for food. It is very singular that the
Negroes do not understand the milking of their domestic animals, and
were above measure astonished when the explorers' servants milked the
goats, and gave the milk to their master ; and the Negroes often sur-
rounded him in crowds to see him eat hens' eggs, a diet quite new to
them, although they ate numbers of the large round eggs of the turtle,
and the still larger crocodile eggs.

Mosquitoes abound everywhere ; and next to them ranks an insect
which has only been known in Africa during the last ten years — the sand
flea, which is said to have been brought by the crew of a Brazilian ship
who were suffering from them. They multiplied with incredible rapidity.
The animalculae enter the skin beneath the toe-nails, where they lay a
bag of eggs as large as a pea ; and the difficulty is to remove this bag
"without breaking it. If this is done, the wound soon heals ; but if not^
painful sores are the result, and the process of healing is very slow.
Another interesting insect is the giant beetle, Goliath, an insect measur-
ing nearly four inches. This black velvety beetle, marked with white on
its upper side, is at home throughout all Africa ; and, with its kindred
types, forms one of the principal treasures of our collections, being so
much in request that twenty-five dollars is paid for a fine specimen.

The Famous Gorilla.

The most interesting animals of these countries are beyond all doubt
the gorilla and the chimpanzee. The gorilla is the largest of the man-
like apes, an animal rather shorter, but considerably more broad-
shouldered than a strong man. Although the gorilla was mentioned
more than 2,000 years ago, by Hanno, the commander of a Carthaginian
fleet, it is even now very imperfectly known. If the statements respect-,
ing the strength and savageness of the gorilla are only half true, there is
little prospect of ever being able to bring over full-grown specimens to
America ; and the young gorilla presented to the zoological garden of
Berlin unfortunately fell a victim to the foreign climate. Even the skin,
skeleton, and remains of the gorilla preserved in spirits, are ranked
among the greatest treasures of our Natural History Museums.

The second representative of the African man-like apes is compara-
tively "frequent, and is well-known under the name of the chimpanzee,
though few full-grown specimens have been brought to this continent ;
it is much smaller, slenderer, and more elegantly built than the gorilla,
and often measures sixty inches in length. While the gorilla frequents
the densest woods, and is only found in the lands near the coast, the
chimpanzee inhabits the whole of the West African sub-division, and'
seems to prefer being near the open clearings of the forests ; both kinds
of ape feed principally on fruits, nuts, and the young shoots of trees,
perhaps also on roots.

As to the mental qualities of the chimpanzee in captivity, much has
been written, and it is agreed that the animal may be ranked among the
most highly gifted of its race. It not only learns to know its master, to
love its friends, and avoid its enemies ; it is not only inquisitive, but
actually desirous of knowledge. Any object which has once excited
its attention increases in value as soon as it has learned how to use it ;
the chimpanzee is cunning, self-willed, but not stubborn, desiring what is
good for itself, betraying humor and caprices ; one day cheerful and
excited, another depressed and sullen.

A Very Human Animal.

When ill, it is patient under the surgeon's knife ; and, according to
Brehm, if not entirely human, has a great deal of the human within it-
It cannot therefore excite our surprise that the natives of West Africa
are of opinion that the chimpanzees were once men, who, on account of
their bad qualities, have been thrust out from human companionship ; and
still persisting in yielding to their evil impulses, have gradually sunk to
their present degraded condition. Less is known of the chimpanzee in
a state of freedom ; like the gorilla, it does not live in troops, as do other
monkeys, but in pairs, or even alone ; it is only occasionally that the
young are seen to assemble in larger bands. The chase is difficult. From
twenty to thirty skilled hunters are required for the pursuit. To them is
entrusted the difficult commission of climbing up the trees for more than
eighty feet, trying to outdo the chimpanzee in speed, and to capture it
in the nets, after which it is easily despatched by lances.

When thus brought to bay, the apes defend themselves with savage-
fury, sometimes snatching the spears from the hunter's hand, and strik-
ing out wildly right and left ; and even more dangerous than this method
of defence is the grip of their pointed teeth, and the amazing muscular
power of their nervous arms. Here, as in the woods on the western
coast, legends are current of their carrying off human beings, and of the
curious nest which it is said they build of leafy branches in the crest of
the forest trees.

We must not omit to mention the smaller kinds of apes ; for although
they are very numerous in all the primeval woods of the tropical belt of
Africa, they are principally found along the west coast and near the
Upper Nile. The name sea-cats, by which they are sometimes known,
^was given centuries ago to these merest and prettiest specimens of the
monkey tribe, because they were brought over the sea to Europe, and
because something in their shape resembles the cat. The favorites of
the children, the nimble, quarrelsome, amusing inhabitants of our men-
ageries and zoological gardens, which sometimes win from the grave
man of science a smile, belong to this category. The greyish green
imonkey, the slate-colored, white-bearded Diana, the ill-tempered black
'monkey, the reddish huzzar monkey, and numerous other kinds, are
included in this family.

It is a real pleasure to meet with a band of these monkeys in the for-
est ; it is a wild chaos of busy life, crying and fighting, quarrelling and
reconciliation, climbing, running, pilfering and plundering, grimacing
and contortion. They recognize no leader of their commonwealth,
except the strongest of their race ; they acknowledge no law but that
enforced by the sharp teeth and strong hands of their chief ; they con-
sider that no danger can exist from which he is not able to set them free;
they adapt themselves to every position, have no fear of drought or fam-
ine, and spend their lives in perpetual activity and merriment. ' Their
chief characteristic is the combination of most amusing earnestness with
boundless frivolity, which accompanies the beginning and end of all their
pursuits.

Inveterate Thieves.

No tree crest is too high, no treasure too safely hidden, no property
"too respected, for their attacks. It is therefore not astonishing that the
natives of East Soudan only speak of them with unutterable contempt
and anger. " Only think, sir, the clearest proof of the godless nature of
monkeys may be seen in their never bowing before the word of God's
ambassadors : all other creatures honor and revere the prophet; Allah's
peace be upon him ! The monkeys despise him. The man who writes
an amulet, and hangs it up in his field to keep off the hippopotamus, the
elephant, and the monkeys from devouring his fruit and injuring his
property, always finds that the elephant alone pays any heed to the
warning signal ; that is because he is a righteous beast, while the ape has
ibeen transformed by the wrath of Allah into an abomination to all men ;
a child of the unrighteous one, just as the hippopotamus is the forbidding
image of the loathsome sorcerer."

But for the impartial spectator it is an attractive and interesting spec-
tacle to watch a band of monkeys setting off upon their predatory expe-
ditions. The audacity they displayed used to delight me as much as it
enraged the natives. Under the leadership of the old veteran father of
the tribe they approach the corn fields, the females carrying their young
before them, instead of on their backs; the young ones, to make them-
selves perfectly secure, twist their short tails round the tail of their lady
mother. At first they approached with great circumspection, travelling
generally from one tree top to another.

The old leader goes first, the others following exactly in his steps, not
only seizing the same trees, but the same portion of the same branch.
From time to time the leader climbs the highest tree, and surveys the
country with careful glances: if his examination is satisfactory, the good
news is announced to his followers by a low gurgling sound; if not, the
usual warning is given. When close to the field, the band descends the
tree, and hastens in vigorous leaps towards its paradise, and then the
work begins with indescribable rapidity. First of all they lay in a stock.
Quickly are the clusters of maize and ears of durrah torn down and
stuffed into the mouth, until the cheeks are distended to the uttermost,
and not until these storehouses are full do the marauders allow them-
selves any relaxation. They then begin to be more particular and dainty
in the choice of their food. All the ears and clusters are carefully sniffed
and examined after being broken off; and if, as is often the case, they do
not come up to the required standard, they are at once thrown away. It
may be safely said that of nine clusters which are gathered, only one is
eaten; and generally the epicures only take a grain or two out of each
ear, and then throw the rest away.

Quick Retreat.

All the members of the band place implicit confidence in the care and
prudence of their leader. The latter often rouses himself from the most
dainty morsel to attend to his duties, standing upright on his hind legs,
and looking keenly round. After each survey he announces the result
either by the gurgling sound, which indicates that he has seen nothing
disquieting, or by the peculiar inimitable quivering cry of warning.
When that sound is heard, his followers are gathered together in a mo-
ment, the mothers call their young ones, and all are at once ready for
flight. The retreat is accomplished without the slightest sign of terror
or cowardice.

The gorilla and monkey tribes appear to be closely allied to the
orang-outang, found in some of the tropical islands. We here quote
from the interesting narrative of a tropical traveller, who captured several
orangs :

This monkey is found in Borneo, and thither Thursday (Thursday was
a native) — now grown more civilized and more indispensable — and I
turned our faces. We took passage on a craft going out with Chinese
laborers, and a hard voyage we had of it, with head winds and a heavy
sea. But at last, ten days late, we arrived at Saraouak, and immediately
inquired of the native hunters where we could best find- the game for
which we were in search. They advised the Sadong River, running to
the east from Saraouak, and bordered its entire length with dense forests.
I hired a Dyak porter to carry our provisions, and we set out. Two
days later we were floating on the river, and my ardent desire was about
to be gratified.

Arms Longer than Legs.

Orang-outang is a word meaning in Borneo, "Man-of-the-Forest,"
and is applied to what is now a species of small stature, rarely five feet
high, but of stalwart build, the body being often in circumference two-
thirds of the l^eight. His arms are a quarter longer than his legs, so
that when travelling on all fours his attitude is half upright; but he never
really stands on his legs like a man, popular belief to the contrary not-
withstanding. When young his colo'r is tawny, but he grows black with
years.

The orangs live in couples in the most secluded parts of the forest, and
are never active, like the chimpanzees, but sit all day with their legs
round a branch, their heads forward in the most uncomfortable attitude,
occasionally uttering mournful sounds. When pursued they climb slowly
up a tree, and at night sleep in the huts built to cover their young, of
which they are very careful, and whose wants they supply with almost
human tenderness and devotion. When taken young they are suscep-
tible of taming and domesticating, like the chimpanzee, but as they grow
older they become cross and violent, and, curiously enough, the fore-
head — prominent in the adult — becomes retreating in later years.

Formidable Foe.

After waiting some days without seeing any orangs, my native guide
advised our going away from the river, deeper into the unbroken forest;
and this we did, a two days' march. One morning, just as I had killed
and was examining a queer wild pig, I heard a rustling in the leaves over
my head, and looking up, was paralyzed with surprise to see, some
twenty-five or thirty feet above me, an enormous orang-outang quietly
seated on a tamarind branch, watching me and grinding his teeth. My
porter was making ,rae elaborate signals of distress which Thursday
translated into advice to shoot the beast, who was old and fully grown,
with, my explosive-ball rifle. .

" He says he is an evil one," added Thursday, " and that the old orangs
are very dangerous and will attack a man at sight."

"All right," I replied. " If he offers to attack us, I will stop him
promptly with a bullet."

It is true that one of my most ardent desires was to obtain a skeleton
of a fully-developed orang-outang, but I decided to postpone the gratifi-
cation of it until I should have watched the animal's movements in a
state of absolute freedom. I told my men to clap their hands and shout,
to scare him, but all he did was to sit and grind his teeth ; and I was
almost persuaded to try my Dyak's advice, when the orang-outang
coolly grasped a branch hanging near, and swung himself slowly from
tree to tree without any apparent effort, about as fast as we could walk
beneath. We followed him until the dense undergrowth made the path
impracticable. An athlete would have performed this trapeze act with,
perhaps, more grace, but nothing could surpass the indolent ease with
which he left us behind.

Must Kill or be Killed.

This was my first interview with this peculiar animal ; and the super-
stitious Dyak assured Thursday, relating numerous parallel cases, that as
I had not killed the orang, the orang would certainly kill me. He said
he had known a great many travellers who had been attacked by them
and killed, and that I would soon join their number, although he con-
fessed that he had never himself been present at such a misfortune.

One morning, as I was returning from a long walk through the
woods in search of insects, one of my boys came running toward me.,
shouting with excitement, " Quick, take your gun ! a large orang, a large orang"

He had only breath enough left to tell me the animal was up the path
toward the Chinaman's camp, and I hurried in that direction followed by
two Dyaks. One barrel of my gun was loaded with ball, and I sent
Charley — the boy — back to camp for more ammunition, in case I should
find the game had kindly waited for me. We walked carefully, making
almost no noise, stopping every now and then to look round ourselves,
until Charley rejoined us at the spot where he had seen the orang, and
I put ball in the other barrel and waited, sure that we were near the
game. In a moment or two I heard a heavy body moving from tree to
tree, but the foliage was so thick we could see nothing.

Finally, fearing I might lose him entirely, I fired at guess into a tree in
which we thought he must be. For so large an animal he moved with
remarkable swiftness and hilence, but I felt sure, if we could follow his
general course, we should eventually catch sight of him in some more
open bit of forest. And so it proved.

Cutting^Down the Tree.

Just at the spot where he had first been seen by Charley, and to which
we had now got back, his tawny side and black head appeared for an
instant ; I saw him cross the path, dragging one leg as if it had been
broken. At any rate, he could not use it, and he took refuge between
two branches of a lofty tulip-tree, sheltered from sight by the thick
growth of glossy leaves. I was afraid he would die up there, and I
should never get him or his skeleton. It was no use trying to get the
Dyaks to climb the tree and cut the branch from under him; they were
afraid, and said so. We tried to dislodge him with all sorts of missiles,
but in vain. Finally we started to cut down the tree ; but when the
trunk was severed the tree only leaned over, and was held in that position
by innumerable tough vines running to a dozen neighboring trees. It
would take us all night to cut them all down ; still, we began the work,
which almost immediately gave the tree such a shaking that down came
the gigantic orang with a tremendous thud. When we came to measure
him, we found him a giant indeed, stretching from hand to hand over six
feet. When he fell the Chinamen lashed him to a litter and carried him
into camp, where it took Charley and myself all day to clean his skin and
boil the flesh from his skeleton. From this and many similar experiences
I have become convinced that, in spite of stories to the contrary, the
orang-outang never attacks man. His policy is always flight, and to my
own testimony is added that of all the Chinese wood-cutters whom I met
in Borneo ; and the island is full of them.

A Young Orang.

Soon after this a young orang fell into my hands, and I determined to
rear him if I could. I started the Dyak off in search of a goat, and told
him not to return until he found one. Meanwhile I mixed sugar, bread,
and water together, and, although at first he declined it energetically, he
soon sucked it from my finger with a decided gusto. It proved, how-
ever, too strong food for so young a stomach, and I was just beginning
to think he would die on my hands, when the Dyak, followed by a
Chinaman and a goat, came into camp. The Chinaman was sharp at
trading; but finally, after pretending that I cared nothing whatever about
his goat, and after long haggling on his part, starting at one hundred
rupees (twelve dollars and fifty cents) and coming down to five, the goat
became mine, and the little orang-outang obtained a step-mother that
soon rivalled its own mother in tenderness. She nursed it and caressed

APES AMONG THE TREE (614)

STANLEY'S GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF AFRICA. 615

it exactly as if it had been her own, and a very pretty sight it was. He
soon grew large enough to travel on his own sturdy legs, at any sudden
alarm running quickly back to his nurse and clinging to her with his
sinewy fingers.

When he strayed away out of her sight in the woods, it was really
pathetic to hear her bleatings and his answering cries. He had gradu-
ally come to know me, and he treated us all with the greatest gentleness.
When he was three months old I began to give him bananas, of which
he was very fond, and he afterward became accustomed to other fruits ;
but nothing ever pleased him like the goat's milk.

He learned very quickly, and at five months knew all objects in my
tent by name, bringing to me anything I called for, which was certainly
more than many children of two or even three years could have done.
But with the latter, development progresses with giant strides after that
age, while with an orang it ceases. What an animal is at one year of
age he always remains.

A Clever Monkey.

One morning a Chinaman came to offer for sale a tiny monkey which
he had partially tamed. This little animal looked like a pygmy beside
my young orang, but he could do a variety of things, like feeding him-
self, etc., that the larger was not yet up to. So I bought him, and put
them in the same hut, where they soon became fast friends ; the monkey,
on account of his more perfectly developed faculties, being easily master.

When he wanted to sleep nothing would do but that the orang must
lie down too, and let him pillow his head on him. But there was ?
another side to this ; for the orang-outang looked upon him as a kind of
doll, invented for his particular enjoyment, and when he felt in playful
mood, he would seize the monkey by the ear or the neck or the tail, and
swing him round and hold him in any uncomfortable position at his own
sweet will. The monkey would rage and even weep, but only interfer-
ence on our part would stop this rough treatment. He learned early, as
all animals do, to distinguish the members of our party and their rela-
tions, and, as master, he always treated me with respectful obedience.

I taught him to eat rice boiled in milk, and to use a spoon and bowl
like his little friend, who, by the way, was fond of .stealing from him all
he safely could. They were both gluttons, and nothing amused Thurs-
day more than to set them quarrelling over some bit of choice fruit. As
the orang's teeth grew, his temper and character became more pro-
nounced, and, like an ill brought-up child, he wished all around him to
give way to his whims.

He had no consideration whatever for the Dyak, who washed and
tended him with the greatest patience, but tried to pull his hair and bite
him whenever the mood seized him. I named him Joseph and the mon-
key Jack — after my chimpanzee friend — and they answered promptly to
their names when called, without mistake, I was proud of them and
their accomplishments, and tempted to send them home to some natural-
ist, but chance prevented. You should have seen them — Jack, a napkin
round his neck, seated at a corner of the table eating slowly with fork
and spoon, like any well-taught child : Joseph, with a napkin over his
arm, waiting upon him as solemnly as an English butler. To be sure,
they stole the best fruit — but then, no one is perfect! It was with a real
pang that I left these little fellows behind with a friend, to whom I gave
them on my departure from Borneo.

Perhaps this is the only case on record of the growth in captivity of a
young orang-outang, and it is interesting to note in what ways he
resembled a child. When very young he lay nearly always on his back,
with his legs in the air, and when he wanted anything he simply put his
head back and howled till he got it. When he first began to walk it
was with the same timid hesitation that a child does, and when he suc-
ceeded in taking a few steps without falling, he glanced at us with a
very human look of triumph. The appearance of the goat always caused
him a high degree of satisfaction, expressed, again like a child on the
entrance of its mother, by little sighs of contentment. I may say, indeed,
that up to the age of four or five months I saw nothing different in him
from what I have remarked in a child except that difference of develop-
ment mentioned before.

CHAPTER XXVII.
A FAMOUS AFRICAN HUNTER.
Continued at:
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