VILLAGE IN THE GABOON COUNTRY.
VILLAGE IN THE GABOON COUNTRY.
SICK ORANG-UTAN.
SICK ORANG-UTAN.
“Although he would never object to be caressed or nursed by even a stranger, yet I never saw him evince the slightest disposition to make the acquaintance of any other animal. At the time he came into my possession I had two Patas Monkeys, and thinking they might become acquainted, I placed Mr. Bamboo in the same apartment, where he resided for five months, yet I never saw the least desire on his part to become even friendly; on the contrary, he showed evident anger and dislike at their approach. This strange attachment to the human race, and manifest dislike to all others, I have considered one of the most extraordinary features of this genus. His cunning was also remarkable. On all occasions when he thought he was unobserved, he would not fail to steal everything within his reach, for no other apparent purpose than to gratify a propensity for thieving; did he, however, even think you were looking at him, he would wait his opportunity with the greatest patience before he commenced depredation. In his habits, unlike the Monkey tribe, he was exceedingly cleanly, never soiling his bed or any place near it; and even on board ship (during the warm weather) he never failed to seek the deck, unassisted, whenever time calls of nature required it. On being left by himself in his piazza he would invariably seat himself on the window-sill, which was the highest point he could attain, and commanded a view of the barrack-yard as well as the interior of my bedroom; but at sunset he would descend, enter a washing-tub, which he had of his own accord chosen as a sleeping-place, and remain there all night; as soon, however, as the sun rose, he would never fail to occupy his favourite position on the window-ledge. From this, I should say, that trees are ascended by the Chimpanzee merely for observation or food, and that they live principally on the ground. Bamboo, at the time of purchase, appeared to be about fourteen months old, and from what I could learn from the natives, they do not reach their full growth till between nine and ten years of age; which, if true, brings them extremely near the human species, as the boy or girl of West Africa, at thirteen or fourteen years old, is quite as much a man or woman as those of nineteen or twenty in our more northern clime. Their height, when full grown, is said to be between four and five feet; indeed, I was credibly informed that a male Chimpanzee, which had been shot in the neighbourhood and brought into Free Town, measured four feet five inches in length, and was so heavy as to form a very fair load for two men, who carried him on a pole between them. The natives say that in their wild state their strength is enormous, and that they have seen them snap boughs off the trees with the greatest apparent ease, which the united strength of two men could scarcely bend. The Chimpanzee is, without doubt, to be found in all the countries, from the banks of the Gambia in the north to the kingdom of Congo in the south, as the natives of all the intermediate parts seem to be perfectly acquainted with them. From my own experience, I can state that the low shores of the Bullom country, situated on the northern shores of the river near Sierra Leone, are infested by them in numbers quite equal to the commonest species of Monkeys. I consider these animals to be gregarious; for when visiting the rice farms of the Chief Dalla Mohammadoo, on the Bullom shore, their cries plainly indicated the vicinity of a troop, as the noise heard could not have been produced by less than eight or ten of them. The natives also affirmed that they always travel in strong bodies, armed with sticks, which they use with much dexterity. They are exceedingly watchful; and the first one who discovers the approach of a stranger utters a protracted cry, much resembling that of a human being in the greatest distress. The first time I heard it I was much startled; the animal was apparently not more than thirty paces distant, but had it been but five I could not have seen it, from the tangled nature of the jungle, and I certainly conceived that such sounds could only have proceeded from a human being, who hoped to gain assistance by his cries from some terrible and instant death. The native who was with me laid his hand upon my shoulder, and pointing suspiciously to the bush, said, ‘Massa, Baboo live there!’ and in a few minutes the wood appeared alive with them, their cries resembling the barking of dogs. My guide informed me that the cry first heard was to inform the troop of my approach, and that they would all immediately leave the trees, or any exalted situation that might expose them to view, and seek the bush; he also showed evident fear, and entreated me not to proceed any further in that direction. The plantations of bananas, pampaws, and plantains, which the natives usually intermix with their rice, constituting the favourite food of the Chimpanzee, account for their being so frequent in the neighbourhood of rice fields. The difficulty of procuring live specimens of this genus arises principally, I should say, from the superstitions of the natives concerning them, who believe they possess the power of ‘witching.’”
A most interesting little male Chimpanzee was obtained from the natives of the Gambia coast some years since, and became famous in London for its great intelligence and human-like conduct. His mother was shot when he was about a twelvemonth old, about 120 miles from the sea; and after being well taken care of he was sent to England on board ship, where he had a free range of the rigging and decks, and where he made himself much liked. A distinguished zoologist, Mr. Broderip, visited him in the Zoological Gardens after he had undergone some tuition, and describes what he saw as follows:—
“I saw him for the first time in the kitchen belonging to the keepers’ apartments, dressed in a little Guernsey shirt, or banyan jacket. He was sitting child-like in the lap of a good old woman, to whom he clung whenever she made show of putting him down. His aspect was mild and passive, but that of a little withered old man, and his large eyes, hairless and crimpled visage, and man-like ears, surmounted by the black hair of his head, rendered the resemblance very striking, notwithstanding the depressed nose and the projecting mouth. He had already become very fond of his good old nurse, and she had evidently become attached to her nursling, although they had only been acquainted for three or four days, and it was with difficulty that he permitted her to go away to do her work inanother part of the building. On her lap he was perfectly at his ease, and it seemed to me that he considered her as occupying the place of his mother. He was constantly reaching up with his hand to the fold of her neckerchief, though when he did so she checked him, saying, ‘No, Tommy, you must not pull the pin out.’ When not otherwise occupied, he would sit quietly in her lap, pulling his toes about with his fingers, with the same passive air as a human child exhibits when amusing himself in the same manner. I wished to examine his teeth; and when his nurse, in order to make him open his mouth, threw him back in her arm and tickled him just as she would a child, the caricature was complete.
“I offered him my ungloved hand. He took it mildly in his, with a manner equally exempt from forwardness and fear, examined it with his eyes, and perceiving a ring on one of my fingers, submitted that, and that only, to a very cautious and gentle examination with his teeth, so as not to leave any mark on the ring. I then offered him my other hand with the glove on. This he felt, looked at it, turned it about, and then tried it with his teeth. At length it became necessary for his kind nurse to leave him, and after much remonstrance on his part she put him on the floor. He would not leave her, however, and walked nearly erect by her side, holding by her gown just like a child. At last she got him away by offering him a peeled raw potato, which he ate with great relish, holding it in his right hand. His keeper, who is very attentive to him, then made his appearance, and spoke to him. Tommy evidently made an attempt to speak, gesticulating as he stood erect, protruding his lips, and making a hoarse noise like ‘hoo! hoo!’ He soon showed a disposition to play with me, jumping on his lower extremities opposite to me like a child, and looking at me with an expression indicating a wish for a game at romps. I confess I complied, and a capital game we had. On another occasion, and when he had become familiar with me, I caused, in the midst of his play, a looking-glass to be brought and held before him. His attention was constantly and strongly arrested: from the utmost activity he became immovably fixed, steadfastly gazing at the mirror with eagerness, and something like wonder depicted in his face. He at length looked up at me, then again gazed at the glass. The tips of my fingers appeared on one side as I held it; he put his hands and then his lips to them, then looked behind the glass, and finally passed his hands behind it, evidently to feel if there were anything substantial there. I presented him with a cocoa-nut, to the shell of which some bark was still adhering; the tender bud was just beginning to shoot forth—this he immediately bit off and ate. He then stripped off some of the bark with his teeth, moving it by the crust of adhering fibres round his head, darted it down, and repeatedly jumped on it with all his weight. A hole was bored in one of the eyes, and the nut again given to him, and he immediately held it up with the aperture downwards, applied his mouth to it, and sucked away at what milk there was with great glee. As I was making notes with a paper and pencil, he came up and looked at me inquisitively, testing the pencil with his teeth when he had it given to him. A trial was made of the little fellow’s courage; for when his attention was directed elsewhere, a hamper containing a large snake, called Python, was brought in and placed on a chair near the dresser. The lid was raised, and the basket in which the snake was enveloped was opened, and soon after Tommy came gambolling that way. As he jumped and danced along the dresser towards the basket he was all gaiety and life; suddenly he seemed to be taken aback, stopped, and cautiously advanced towards the basket, peered or rather craned over it, and constantly, with a gesture of horror and aversion and the cry of ‘hoo! hoo!’ recoiled from the detested object, jumped back as far as he could, and then sprang to his keeper for protection. Tommy does not like confinement, and when he is shut up in his cage, the violence with which he pulls at and shakes the door is very great, and shows considerable strength; but I have never seen him use this exertion against any other part of the cage, though his keeper has endeavoured to induce him to do so, in order to see whether he would make the distinction. When at liberty he is extremely playful; and in his high jinks, I saw him toddle into a corner where an unlucky bitch was lying with a litter of very young pups, and lay hold of one of them, till the snarling of the mother and the cries of the keeper made him put the pup down. He then climbed up to the top of the cage where the Marmosets were, and jumped furiously upon it, evidently to astonish the inmates, who huddled together, looking up at the dreadful creature over their heads. Then he went to a window, opened it and looked out. I was afraid that he might make his escape; but the words ‘Tommy, No!’ pronounced by the keeper in a mild but firm tone, caused him to shut the window and to come away. He is, in truth, a most docile and affectionate animal, and it is impossible not to be taken with the expressive gestures and looks with which he courts your good opinion, and throws himself upon you for protection against annoyance.”
Whether they grow cross and savage as they get old is not known, for no adults have been kept in captivity, but as this is usual in other Monkeys, it is probable that their interesting time of life is that of childhood, and that when the age of fun and tricks has passed there is not much else but brutality left.
Little or nothing reliable is known about the habits of the adults, and all the wickednesses of Gorillas and Baboons have been attributed to them, and, in fact, the very same stories will do for any one of them.
These stories have, however, been believed; and even Cuvier, the great comparative anatomist, wrote, that the Chimpanzees live in troops, construct themselves huts of leaves, arm themselves with sticks and stones, and employ these weapons to drive away men and Elephants from their dwellings. They did not, he believed, scruple to attack the Lion, and they were exceedingly impolite to negresses in general.
As they all, except possibly the Soko, live in a district where the forests are dense and close, there is no doubt they are rarely seen; and indeed reliable travellers do not hesitate to say that a white man has never seen them in a state of nature, except by obtaining a glance as they rush off on being surprised. All the stories must, therefore, be received with suspicion, as tainted with the results of African fear and love of the wonderful; especially as they come from the negro race living in the remarkable tract of country extending along the West Coast from the river Gambia to some distance north of Angola, and thence into the interior to the little known regions between the hills which run parallel with the sea many miles inland, and the country of the large lakes far away to the East.
Gifted with wonderful agility and no little power of imitation and intelligence, and possessed of very acute senses and ability to unite the actions of many groups of muscles to a common purpose, the Chimpanzee must have a well-formed nervous system—that is to say, a good brain and spinal cord. A brain to originate or commence actions, and the cord of nerves to carry the orders of the brain to the limbs. Measured over the brain case of the skull, that of the Chimpanzee has a bulk of about one-half of that of man, and less than that of the Gorilla; but the brain itself has striking resemblances to that of man. The principal folds which are noticed on the human brain exist in the Chimpanzee, but they are simpler in their foldings, and are large in proportion to the whole. This means that there is not as much nerve structure packed in a given space as there is in man; and the distinction is most important, for the greater the packing the greater the nervous energy and power. But the parts of the brain which have especially to do with the movements of the body, and their regulations and adaptations, are very well formed; and it is the comparative deficiency in those parts which have a mysterious relation with the intelligence, instinct, and the mind which causes the brain of the Chimpanzee to differ in appearance and size from that of man. But in both the brain proper over-laps and covers the cerebellum or little brain. The nerves are well formed and large.
It seems that the brain of the Chimpanzee never has a chance of increasing in size, for after a certain age the bones of the brain case become, as it were, soldered together.
The Chimpanzee has a famous pair of shoulders, a broad back, and, like the Gorilla, a very short neck. Its weight is less than that of the greatest of Apes, and therefore it does not require such huge muscles for climbing. The great bony spines of the neck-bones are smaller; and the bones of the upper part of the spine are not made as strongly.
Loving much to hang by the hands, with the arms stretched out above the head, the Chimpanzee has the blade-bone more like that of an ordinary Monkey, and less like that of man and the Gorilla, and its muscles are so placed as to permit of their acting readily when this position is kept up. As this position is extremely easy and useful, it is assisted by the animal’s having a short and stout collar-bone. Its arm-bone is tolerably near the length of that of man, but it is like a Gorilla’s in miniature. The bones of the fore-arm (the radius and ulna), instead of being shorter than the arm-bone, equal it in length, and the last named is much bent, so as to give a large surface for the muscles which supply the hand and wrist.
As a whole, the hand of the Chimpanzee is, in proportion to the size of the animal, larger thanthat of the Gorilla, but the thumb is shorter, and this makes it more Monkey-like than human; and the same may be said of the lower limbs, for the thigh-bone and those of the leg, although greatly resembling those of the Gorilla, have many peculiarities which make them resemble those of the less important Monkeys. Finally, with regard to the foot, that of the Chimpanzee is more Monkeyish than that of the Gorilla. The great Ape’s foot has many peculiarities which make it differ from that of man, and these are all magnified, as it were, in the Chimpanzee, whose foot, therefore, is all the more unlike ours. It is especially adapted for grasping and climbing, and less well suited for occasionally standing erect and walking. Its heel is short and slender, and the toe-thumb is smaller, and the whole foot is slenderer, than the Gorilla’s. Moreover, it is more turned in.
When young, there are no crests on the head, but with age a small one grows on each side in front, running from about the centre of each side of the brow ridge over the receding forehead, and joining together in the middle line, close to the top of the skull. This meets a larger and stronger one, which is a miniature of the head crest of the Gorilla, and which reaches from ear to ear. The use is probably for the attachment of the masticating muscles at the side, and for that of the muscles of the neck behind; but it is also a kind of ornament of the males.
Strong as this Ape is in its loins, from its extra ribs, the hip-bones seem narrow from side to side; and one of the causes of this is interesting, not only because it is also noticed in the other great Apes, but also because it is one of their marked distinctions from man.
The pieces of the back-bone (or vertebræ), as they pass between the hip-bones behind, unite them together, and degenerate until they form the curious little tail-end of the back-bone, which in us, and in the Apes, is curled slightly, with the concave part of the bend forward. The pieces unite strongly to each other above and below, and form really one bone, which is called the sacrum. Now, if these pieces were nearly or quite as stout and broad as those higher up, the hips would be wide apart; but if they become narrow, the hips will be all the closer together. In man, the pieces are broad, and the sacrum, as a whole, is so also, and the hips are widely separate; but the reverse is the case in the Apes.
BRAIN OF CHIMPANZEE.
BRAIN OF CHIMPANZEE.
This difference in the breadth of the bone and the width of the hip has evidently to do with the maintenance of the erect posture in man, and the inability to keep erect for long, and comfortably, by these great Apes. The larger the surface of the sacrum, the greater is the mass of muscle passing to the back and downwards; and this is small in comparison in the Chimpanzee.
Where the proper vertebræ of the sacrum end—that is to say, the pieces of the back-bone which are placed between the hip (ilium) bones—the tail begins. It is made up of three stunted bones, which are something like ill-made back-bone pieces (vertebræ); they are usually inseparably joined together to make a special bone, which is broad above, and tapering below. This bone, the rudiment of the tail, which, from some fancied resemblance to a Cuckoo’s back, has been called the cuckoo-bone (os coccygis), is covered by skin and embedded in muscles, which do not allow it to stick out visibly even as a stump; for its tip is curled inwards. This apology for the member which is so vastly important in many Monkeys is narrow in the man-like Apes, the black Chimpanzee included; but it is a little wider in man, although the general construction is the same. Could these bones—which, by their being united, form this rudiment of a tail—be disunited and increased in number, stuck out, and covered with skin and muscles, something like the very Monkey-like appendage would be formed. But noble tails are not the gifts of the higher Apes, as they are called, from their many points of resemblance in structure with man, and even in the smaller Monkeys they are extremely variable belongings, being given to one kind and not to another in a manner far beyond our philosophy.
The Chimpanzee has a long palate, like the other great Apes of the West African woods.Moreover, it has a uvula in the back of the throat, and the back of the tongue is marked with great papillæ, which take up the shape of a T. It does not do more than grunt “hem,” and bark after a fashion; and the use of some great air-pouches, which resemble those of the Gorilla, are therefore not very apparent. But the bony structures of the palate are interesting, for at the back of it they do not form a simple knob, as in the Gorilla, but resemble those of man, and there is a little prominence, with a festoon curve on each side.
It lives upon vegetable food, and its teeth are admirably suited for it; they are of the same number as those of the rest of the great man-shaped Apes, and do not differ very much from them. The front teeth are large, and project, and do not bite very up and down on the tips, so they wear behind quicker than in front, their general shape being rather peculiar and distinctive. Female Chimpanzees have smaller eye-teeth than the males, and all have them with a sharp edge behind, so that they can cut a pine-apple as well as pierce it. Behind them are the pre-and true molars, but the last tooth of the upper jaw looks small, for its hinder projections or cusps are small. In the lower jaw the last tooth has a fifth cusp, but it is smaller proportionately than in the lower Monkeys; and the first pre-molar has its front and outer angle stuck out very much after the fashion of the Baboons. Now these are little matters, which do not appear to have anything to do with causes and effects, the adaptation of means to ends, or which do not enable the creature to chew and crush its food a bit the less well, or better than others; they refer to some hidden mystery which unites apparently very different animals together in the scheme of creation. Thus the Chimpanzee has human-like, Gorilla-like, Baboon-like, and other Monkey-like peculiarities, so far as the teeth are concerned, and yet which do not interfere with the successful mastication of the food. We may make theories about them of supreme interest, which may explain why animals are alike and unlike, and how the structures of superior animals were foreshadowed in those of lower ones, and the structures of the latter in those of still simpler forms of life.
It is the great front teeth, the large space hidden by the visible nose, the prominent upper, and the great length of the lower jaw, which give such a Baboon-like appearance to the face of the Chimpanzee’s skull; and this is interesting, for there may have been a kinship between the two tribes.
These man-shaped Apes, the Gorilla, the Nschiego Mbouvé, the Koolo-Kamba, the Soko, and the Chimpanzee, form a group of beings which is peculiarly situated geographically, and which is separated from all others by anatomical differences. Their home is in Equatorial Africa, from the Western Sea to the Great Lakes near the eastern side of the Continent, and none of the kinds composing it have ever been found out of this range. Their bones have not been found in caves or in the state of fossils anywhere, so they must be regarded as essentially African. The group clings to forest and jungle, and its members lead very much the same kind of lives, for they are all vegetarians, liking quietude, and either roaming singly or in pairs, or living in troops. There is no evidence whatever that any of these species of Troglodytes have ever wandered; and it must be admitted that they have lived where they are now found ever since the country has been as it is, as regards its physical geography and peculiar climate. As regards their anatomical distinctness from other beings, they may be separated from man on the one hand, and from the Monkeys, which form the subject of the next chapters, on the other. They are linked together as a group by many resemblances in their construction, although there are differences enough to distinguish kind from kind. From man they one and all differ in the shape of the head, the size of the brain case, the nature of the palate, the shape of the jaws, and in the last lower molar teeth and tooth-spaces. Their head-ridges, the shape and length of their limbs, and the nature of their thumbs and toe-thumbs are very distinctive. The great air-pouches, the shape of the chest, the extra ribs, and the shape of the hip-girdle, cause them to differ much from man; and their brain is, as it were, dwarfed and infantile.[13]