Chapter 9

CHAPTER II.THE MAN-SHAPED APES (continued)—THE NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ—THE KOOLO-KAMBA—THE SOKO—THE CHIMPANZEE.

THENSCHIEGOMBOUVÉ—Its Nests and Habits—A Specimen Shot—Differences between it and the Gorilla—Structural Peculiarities—THEKOOLO-KAMBA—Meaning of the Name—Discovered by Du Chaillu—Its Outward Appearance and Anatomy—THESOKO—Discovered by Livingstone—Hunting the Soko—THECHIMPANZEE—In Captivity—On Board Ship—A Young Chimpanzee—The Brain and Nerves—Anatomical Peculiarities—General Remarks upon the Group

THISgreat Ape, which attains the height of four feet, and has a spread of arms of seven feet, was discovered by Du Chaillu in the Gaboon district. It is remarkable for building very comfortable shelters, and this led to its being found; for Du Chaillu, in one of his excursions, was trudging along, rather tired of sport, when he saw a most singular-looking shelter built on the branches of a tree. He thought it had been made by the natives, and asked whether the hunters had the habit of sleeping in the woods, but was told, to his great surprise, that it was a nest built by the Nschiego Mbouvé, an Ape. Moreover, one of the natives told him that it was a curious creature, which had a bald head.

Many of the nests were seen subsequently, and it was noticed that they were generally built about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground, and invariably on a tree which stands slightly apart from others, and which had no lower bough beneath the shelter. Occasionally they are to be seen at the height of fifty feet; and it would appear that the altitude has something to do with the dread of the few flesh-eating and destructive beasts, such as the Leopard. The loneliest parts of the forest are chosen, for the animal is shy, and is very rarely seen, even by the negroes. The materials for the nest consist of leafy branches, and are collected by the male and the female also, who tie them together, and to the tree, very neatly with twigs of the vine. The roof is so well constructed that it closely resembles human work, and it throws off the rain admirably, for it is neatly rounded at the top. During its construction, the female gathers the branches and vines, whilst the male builds; but afterwards they do not occupy the same shelter, the male making another close by in a neighbouring tree. The roof, which is usually some six or eight feet in diameter, is more or less dome-shaped, or something like an extended umbrella; and the Nschiego gets under it and clasps the tree, or squats on a bough, so that its head is just beneath the under surface. The nests are not occupied permanently, and usually for not more than eight or ten days, for the Apes, living upon wild berries of a certain kind, select spots where they are plentiful, and leave them when the store is exhausted. Du Chaillu never saw many nests together, and he does not think the animals live in troops, but only in pairs. Sometimes a solitary nest is seen, inhabited by a Nschiego, whose silvery hair denotes its age, and probably its desire for solitude after a long and troublous life.

Being desirous of obtaining one of these shelter makers, as they were evidently new to science, Du Chaillu took every precaution to surprise his prey; but it is best to tell the story in his own words:—

“We travelled with great caution, not to alarm our prey, and had a hope that, by singling out ashelter, and waiting till dark, we should find it occupied. In this hope we were not disappointed. Lying quite still in our concealment (which tried my patience sorely), we at last, just at dusk, heard the peculiar ‘Hew, hew, hew,’ which is the call of the male to his mate. We waited till it was quite dark, and then I saw what I had so longed all the weary afternoon to see. A Nschiego was sitting in his nest. His feet rested on the lower branch, his head reached quite into the little dome of the roof, and his arm was clasped firmly round the tree-trunk. This is their way of sleeping. After gazing till I was tired through the gloom at my sleeping victim, two of us fired, and the unfortunate beast fell at our feet without a struggle, or even a groan. We built a fire at once, and made our camp in this place, that when daylight came I might first of all examine and skin my prize. The poor Ape was hung up to be out of the way of insects, and I fell asleep on my bed of leaves and grass, as pleased a man as the world could well hold. Next morning I had leisure to examine the Nschiego.

NSCHIEGO MBOUVÉ. (From a Stuffed Specimen.)

“I was at once struck with points of difference between it and the Chimpanzee. It was smaller, and had a bald black head. This is its distinctive character. This specimen was three feet eleven inches high, or long. It was an adult. Its skin, where there is no hair, is black, and the thick breast and abdomen are covered with short and rather thin blackish hairs. On the lower part of the abdomen the hair is thinnest, but this is not perceived unless looked at carefully, as the skin is the colour of the hair. On the legs the hair is of a dirty grey, mixed with black. The shoulders and back have black hair between two and three inches long, mixed with a little grey. The arms down to the wrist have also long black hair, but shorter than in the Gorilla. The hair is blacker, longer, glossier, and thinner in general than that on the Gorilla, and the skin is not so tough. I noticed that the bare places, where the hair is worn off by contact with hard substances in sleeping, were different from the bare places which are so conspicuous on the common Chimpanzee.

“It is not as powerful an animal as the Gorilla, its chest is not so large, but the arms and fingers are a little longer, and this is the case with the toes also. The nose is not so prominent, but the mouth is wider and the ears are larger. Its chin is rounder, and has more small hairs, and the side of the face is thinly covered with hair, commencing about the middle of the ear, and these would seem to be signs of an incipient beard and whiskers. The lower parts of the body are bare, and the skin is white there.”

Apparently the disposition and temper of the Nschiego are better than those of the Gorilla; it is less ferocious, and is even docile in captivity. It has not the hideous expression of the great Ape, for there is something of a forehead above the ridge of the eyebrow, and there are no great crests on the head, which is rounder than that of the Gorilla. The teeth are rather smaller, but are of the same number. The height is less than that of the female Gorilla, as a rule; and the male of this bald kind is larger than its female; whilst the little young ones differ in their colour from both, being white. Finally, it would appear that there are hard callous pads on the back of the fingers, that the hand is larger than the feet, and that the tips of the fingers reach a little below the knee. Associated with the Gorilla and with the Chimpanzee in the forests of Equatorial Western Africa, the Bald-headed Troglodyte appears to have a restricted geographical range, and not to be found over so large a district as its companions, for it was only met with on the table-lands of the interior, and in the densest forests.

Subsequently Du Chaillu had a good opportunity of substantiating his statements about the nests.

“On our way down, at sunset of the third day, we heard the call of a Nschiego Mbouvé (Troglodytes calvus). I immediately caused my men to lie down, and was just getting into a hiding-place myself, when I saw, in the branches of a tree at a little distance, the curious nest or bower of this Ape; hard by, on another tree, was another shelter. We crept up within shot of this nest, and then waited, for I was determined to see once more the precise manner in which this animal goes to rest. We lay flat on the ground, and covered ourselves with leaves and bush, scarcely daring to breathe, lest the approaching animal should hear us. From time to time I heard the calls. There were evidently two, probably male and female. Just as the sun was setting, I saw an animal approach the tree. It ascended by a hand-over-hand movement, with great rapidity, crept carefully under the shelter, seated itself on the crotch made by a projecting bough, its feet and haunches resting on this bough; then it put one arm about the trunk of the tree for security.

SKELETON OF NSCHIEGO.

“Thus, I suppose, they rest all night; and this posture accounts for some singular abrasions of hair on the side of the Nschiego Mbouvé. At a little distance off I saw another shelter made for the mate. No sooner was it seated than it began again to utter its call. It was answered; and I began to have the hope that I should shoot both animals, when an unlucky motion of one of my men roused the suspicions of the Ape in the tree. It began to prepare for descent, and, unwilling to risk the loss of this one, I fired. It fell to the ground dead. It proved to be a male, with the face and hands entirely black. As we were not in haste, I made my men cut down the trees which contained the nests of these Apes. I found them made precisely as I have before described, and as I have always found them, of long branches and leaves, laid one over the other very carefully and thickly, so as to render the structure capable of shedding off water. The branches were fastened to the tree in the middle of the structure by means of wild vines and creepers, which are so abundant in these forests. The projecting limb on which the Ape perched was about four feet long. There remains no doubt in my mind that these nests are made by the animal to protect it from the nightly rains. When the leaves begin to dry to that degree that the structure no longer throws off water, the owner builds a new shelter, and this happens generally once in ten or fifteen days. At this rate the Nschiego Mbouvé is an animal of no little industry.”

The differences between the outside appearance and the intelligence and temper of this Bald-headed Ape and those of the Gorilla are accompanied by certain internal ones. A careful examination of the skull of the Tschiégo, as its clever French describer, Duvernay, calls it, shows that it has smaller ridges, a less prominent muzzle, and a wider and shorter roof of the mouth than the Gorilla. The last of the upper crushing, or back teeth, is the smallest. In the Gorilla they are nearly equal in size. The lower jaw in the Nschiego has three nearly equal-sized molar or back teeth, and the first and the second have five projections or cusps, but the last has only four. In the Gorilla it has five cusps. These minute differences are probably constant, and therefore must not be passed over, although they may seem to be of no importance to the creatures. But the classification of animals can only depend upon the presence or absence of structural peculiarities; and when such and such a structure exists in one, and not in another, they cannot both be of the same kind. According to the relation of the structure to the life, and according to its being constantly found, so is it important in deciding whether the “kind” is a species, or a mere variety or race.

SKULL OF NSCHIEGO.

The great distinction between the two animals is that the Nschiego’s forehead, formed by the frontal bone, rises up from the great brow ridge, and is visible from the front. This is not the case with the Gorilla, whose forehead recedes greatly. Both animals have the same number of ribs (thirteen), but those of the Nschiego are more man-shaped and are not so broad and close together; and their chests differ in breadth, for the breast-bone of the new Ape is narrower, but it is long and thick. The blade-bone, so important to the Gorilla, is equally so to the Nschiego, but it is longer and narrower on the back, and its spine is very oblique. Possibly this conformation of the bone may have to do with the constant climbing of the Bald-headed Ape, but nevertheless the spines on the neck-bones, which give origin to such exceedingly strong muscles in the Gorilla, are much smaller in the Nschiego. The first neck-bone, or atlas, has no spine in this Ape, in which it is like man, and the axis, or second, has a forked spine, and is crested at the end, but otherwise is like that in man.

Finally, the rudiment of a tail is like that end of the back-bone found in the Gorilla and in man.

These are the principal points and the most important distinctions; they show that the Nschiego cannot be of the same kind or species as the Gorilla, but is a Troglodyte, resembling the Gorilla somewhat in its skeleton, and although smaller than the male, still quite, if not more, man-shaped.

The London Zoological Society own a fine example of the Bald-headed Chimpanzee (Anthropopithecus calvus), which, under the name of “Sally,” is known to every frequenter of their famous Gardens, where it has resided since October, 1883.

This kind of Troglodyte is celebrated for saying koola-koolo over and over again as its favourite cry, for having a very extraordinary frog-like figure, and for being one of those creatures which are exceedingly interesting to zoologists, because they are, as it were, half one thing and half another.

A neighbour of the great Apes already noticed, it associates also with the common Chimpanzee, in the quiet forests of Western Equatorial Africa. In one of these Du Chaillu first saw it, and he describes his discovery as follows:—

“We had hardly got clear of the Bashikoway ants and their bites when my ears were saluted by the singular cry of the Ape I was after. ‘Koola-koolo! koola-koolo!’[10]it said several times. Gambo and I raised our eyes, and saw, high up on a tree-branch, a large Ape. We both fired at once, and the next moment the poor beast fell to the ground with a heavy crash. I rushed up, anxious to see if, indeed, I had a new animal. I saw in a moment that it was neither a Nschiego Mbouvé, nor a Chimpanzee, nor a Gorilla. Again I had a happy day—marked for ever with red ink in my calendar. We at once disembowelled the animal, which was a male. I found in its intestines only vegetable matter and remains. The skin and skeleton were taken into camp, where I cured the former with arsenic sufficiently to take it into Obindji. The animal was a full-grown male, four feet three inches high, and was less powerfully built than the male Gorilla, but as powerful as either the Chimpanzee or Nschiego Mbouvé. When it was brought into Obindji, all the people, and even Quenqueza, at once exclaimed, ‘That is a Koolo-Kamba.’ Then I asked them about the other Apes I already knew, but for these they had other names, and did not at all confound the species. For all these reasons I was assured that my prize was indeed a new animal; a variety, at least, of those before known. The Koolo-Kamba has several distinctive marks: a very round head, whiskers running quite round the face and below the chin; the face is round, the cheek-bones prominent, the eyes sunken, and the jaws not very prominent, less so than in any of the Apes. The hair is black and long on the arm, which was, however, partly bare. The Koolo is the Ape, of all the great Apes now known, which most nearly approaches man in the structure of its head; for the capacity of the cranium is somewhat greater, in proportion to the animal’s size, than in either the Gorilla or the Nschiego Mbouvé. Of its habits these people could tell me nothing, except that farther in the interior it was found more frequently, and that it was like the Gorilla, very shy and hard of approach.” They are rare animals, and Du Chaillu met with this one only; it was as large as a female Gorilla, and from its structure was evidently a great climber.

One was killed and sent over to Paris several years since, and its anatomy forms a great treatise by the distinguished men whose names are appended to its title,Troglodytes Aubryi.

They agree with Du Chaillu in his slight notice of its shape and peculiarities to a certain extent, and in his notice that the arms reach below the knee, that the shoulders are broad, and that the ears are large, but they give some very interesting descriptions of its strange characteristics. It has many points of resemblance with the Gorilla and many with the Nschiego, but it has others which cause it to be like the common Chimpanzee, and which show some likeness to the great Baboon. It fills up the gap in the animal scale between the Nschiego and Gorilla on the one hand, and the true Chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger) on the other; and were it not in existence, it would be necessary to divide these Apes into two groups or genera, to make, in fact, a genus Gorilla and a genus Troglodytes, the first to contain the Gorilla and Nschiego, and the last the Chimpanzee. They are all therefore linked together in one genus by it, that ofTroglodytes.

The shape and the peculiar anatomy of the Koolo-Kamba are not simply curious and only interesting to those who study dry bones, for they have to do with its habits and mode of life, and their examination is full of instruction to those who like to understand causes and effects, and design in Nature. Much has been explained in the chapter on the Gorilla regarding the different parts of the body, and if that information is considered there will be no difficulty in comprehending all about the Ape now under consideration.

The shape of the body as a whole is admirably adapted for great powers of climbing and of exertion of the limbs, and these last are adapted for the same end in a manner surpassing the great Apes already described. But, moreover, the body is peculiarly suited, not for maintaining or often using the upright position or the legs, but for going on all-fours, like a Baboon or Dog. Doubtless the Gorilla and the Nschiego do often stand up for a short time, and their construction points at this being very possible, as their frame has a combination of structures for doing this and for climbing. Now the Koolo-Kamba must differ from them in its structure, for it requires those which enable it to invariably go on all-fours, and yet to climb better than the others.

It never wants to sit down, except with its knees drawn up to its nose, and it squats on its haunch bones (the tuberosities of the haunch—of the “ischium” bone).

The body is very ball-like, and there is no visible division between the chest, the stomach, and the hips; it is not troubled with a waist, and anything like one is positively below the hips, just over where the thighs join the body. In fact, as before noticed, the shape is that of a frog. There are no graceful curves to the back, and there is no “small” to it. On looking at the chest, it will be noticed that it is long behind and short in front; the ribs go down close to the edge of the hips; and in order that this extra stoutness and strength of loin shall be there, there are fourteen ribs, instead of thirteen, as in the other great Apes. The breast-bone in front sticks out, so that were the animal to lie on its stomach its point would lean on the ground, and not its front, as in us. This last peculiarity is an adaptation for going on all-fours. The absence of waist and the shape of the loins relate to the small size of one of the muscles of the back (sacro lumbalis), large and important in man.

KOOLO-KAMBA.

The belly is very large, and it is kept from pushing into the chest by the capacity given to the space within the ribs and breast-bone, by a bulged-out state of the ribs at the back, and the projection of the breast-bone. Hence, the frog-like figure looks asthmatical; and as it is very high-shouldered, there is but little neck.

All this bulging has not only reference to the maintenance of the capacity of the lungs, and its independence of the great stomach, which, when full, would tend to press in all directions, but it enables the muscles of the back and shoulders, which have so much to do with climbing, to be large and vigorous. More space is afforded for the insertion or attachment of muscular fibres.

The blade-bone does not add to the bulk of the shoulders, for it is rather long and narrow for a great Ape; and its spine, which has so much to do with the muscles which lift up the arm, is very much aslant, and in the best direction for constant climbing, instead of much walking on the knuckles. And that climbing and holding on are the usual motions may be credited, it is only necessary to notice that the arms and the fingers are long, and that the tips of them touch below theknee when the skeleton is placed upright. Moreover, this great length is accompanied by corresponding strength, and also by a very curious condition of the hands.

The Koolo has a larger hand in relation to its breadth than the Gorilla, and there are no bunches of muscle forming rounded swellings or balls under the thumb and little finger. On the contrary, the long and narrow palm is, as it were, bent across, as if it could fit capitally on to a bough. There is no doubt that this Ape, like all the others, does a good deal of swinging, by holding on to boughs with its hands, when the arms are straight above the head; and that they move along a bough, or from tree to tree, in this position, without bending the elbow, and with considerable speed. This method of getting along may also be seen in Chimpanzees. Evidently the curved palm will be of immense advantage in such actions, and especially when it is combined, as it is in the Koolo-Kamba, with a slightly bent-downwards condition of the fingers. The bones (phalanges) of the fingers are long, and each is slightly curved, and not straight, as in man and the great Apes already noticed, so that their three bones, when in their proper position, are decidedly out of a straight line, and present a general curve, which is rendered all the more decided by the bend in the palm. All this is very useful for grasping and holding on. But it is not all; in man and the other great Apes, the wrist consists of two rows of small bones, one placed before the other: the first row is jointed to the bones of the fore-arm, at what is called the wrist-joint, which moves forwards and backwards as a hinge; and the second row is so jointed on the first row that there is no movement, and in front it is jointed to the bones of the palm, and to those of the thumb. Now in the Koolo the second row of wrist-bones—or as they are called from the Latin,carpus, a wrist—carpal bonesare movableon the first row, and muscular exertion can bend, not only the metacarpal bones and the fingers, but also the wrist-bones. Hence the hand is more movable in the bending direction than that of man, and the reason is because of the peculiar requirements of the creature’s life. The thumb is small, and only reaches the first joint of the forefinger: its tip can only touch the tip of one finger at a time, and not those of all, as in man, and therefore it is not of much use in distinguishing objects by touch; moreover, it cannot be stuck out far—and this is necessary, for in climbing its tip is required to be as close to the fingers as is possible. The muscles of the hands and arms resemble those of the Chimpanzee generally, and will be noticed in describing it.

When the Koolo-Kamba walks, it does so like the Gorilla, by leaning on the backs of its fingers, and hence it has callous pads on the back of their second bones. All the peculiar construction of the hands and wrist bears a relation to the vast muscular development of the muscles of the back of the chest and shoulders in the process of climbing; and it is to be observed, as it was in the instance of the Gorilla, that these muscles have more to do with such actions than those of the chest, which go to the arm, and which are so much used in man for that purpose. The muscles of the chest are not large and strong in the Apes, for, as has already been mentioned, they climb with the back of the hand towards the face, and do not attempt, like man, to lift the body with the palm and nails turned towards him. This last proceeding necessitates large chest muscles, and the former large ones at the back of the shoulders.

There is something remarkable about the haunch-bones, or those parts of them which support the body when sitting. In man they are well in front of the end of the back-bone, which tapers off and turns in a little, and forms a rudiment of a tail. These tuberosities of the haunch-bone (as they are called, because they are swollen out and flattened for the especial purpose in man) are placed, in the Koolo-Kamba, behind the end of the spine or the true rudiment of the tail, and this throws all the under parts backwards, giving the animal a thorough Baboon and animal character. Oddly enough, the rudiment of the tail in this Ape is smaller than in man.

A study of the foot shows that it is of immense use in holding on and in climbing, and of none in walking. It looks more like a small hand, furnished with a great thumb, than a foot with a toe-thumb.

It differs from human feet in the length of the toes, and this is rather an interesting artistic point, for there is some diversity in the opinions regarding which should be the longest toes in man.

The Greek statues—those grand models of the highest types of mankind—very constantly have the second toe the longest, and reaching more to the front, when the foot is on the ground, than the great toe and the third. Nowadays, after men have had their feet pinched, cabined, and confined in all sorts of boots and shoes, generation after generation it is wonderful that their toes should be of any shape atall; and, therefore, it must be anticipated that the Grecian type will not always prevail. Nevertheless, although the great toe is often the longest, the third toe never is, except there is some decided deformity, like double toes. It is, however, the third toe which is the longest in the Ape, just as the third finger of the hand is the longest in man; and hence the Ape’s foot, with its great thumb, is in this hand-like. But as has been mentioned before, bone for bone, and almost muscle for muscle, the human and Ape’s foot agree, and the hinder extremity of this last is really a foot with a toe-thumb.

On looking at the head of the Koolo, one is struck with the great ears, which are larger than those of the Apes already described, and almost as large as, but less detached, than those of the Chimpanzee. The skull is globular, and with a low contracted forehead receding behind the brow crests; but there are only faint ridges on its sides, although the muscles of the jaw are large, and they come from the sides of the skull. The head is very hairy, and the face, which is very prognathous (Greek,gnathos, jaw or mouth), or projecting in front, is black. It is rendered very tigerish and ugly by the flat nose merging into a wide, thick, projecting upper lip, without any furrow; and the mouth looks like a wide slit, there being no chin, on account of the pouting nature of the great lips.

Like the other Troglodytes, the Koolo-Kamba has great air sacs or throat pouches, which are hidden amongst the great muscles of the neck, and enter the organ of voice, or the larynx, between the upper and lower structures for the production of vocal sound. Their size and general nature may be satisfactorily compared with those of the Gorilla. (Seepage 22.)

Having something of a voice, this Ape has a better-formed palate than the others, and its tongue has not such a jumble of papillæ or little needle points on it as they have, for the larger cup-shaped ones are arranged at the back in the shape of the letter Y. The last molar tooth of the lower jaw has five cusps.

A huge eater of vegetable food, it requires a large stomach, and this has the two openings very close together, that is to say, the one for the passage of food in, and the other for the passage of food out, into the small gut. There is, as in all vegetarians by nature, a large great intestine, enormous, in fact, and this ends, as in man, in a blind gut with an appendix. The cause of all this is that vegetable food does not contain much available nourishment, and large portions of it must come in contact with the mucous or absorbing membrane of the stomach and bowels, in order that a proper quantity of nutritious matter may be absorbed, and be made into blood. The contrary is the case in flesh-eating animals, whose food contains a high percentage of nourishment; for in them the stomach and intestines are small, the surface required not being great, and nature is wonderfully economical.

This animal, both as regards its name, description, and habits, we owe to Livingstone; and the stories which he heard of it from the natives, in the strange country to the west of the great lake Tanganyika, must have wiled away many a weary hour during his ill-health and gradual loss of energy.

The first notice of it is curious, and occurs in his “Last Journals.” They were in want of rain, and he writes:—“A Soko, alive, was believed to be a good charm for rain, so one was caught; and the captor had the ends of two fingers and toes bitten off. The Soko, or Gorilla, always tries to bite off these parts, and has been known to overpower a young man, and leave him without the ends of fingers and toes. I saw the nest of one; it was a poor contrivance—no more architectural skill shown than in the nest of our cushat dove.” Here the consideration of this creature might have ended, for Livingstone terms it a Gorilla, but this name, like that of Pongo, is evidently given to all great African Apes with bad characters, and moreover, as will be noticed presently, when one of the illustrious traveller’s native companions came to England, and was shown a stuffed Gorilla, he decided that it was not the same thing as the Soko.

In another part of his Journal Livingstone returns to the Soko, which he still calls the Gorilla; but in the drawings given it evidently is not one, and is neither as large in its body nor as ugly in the face; moreover, the large ears would cause it to be considered, were there not other reasons, as one of the true Chimpanzees, orTroglodytes niger.

The following extracts from Livingstone possess undoubted interest:—

“24th August.—Four Gorillas or Sokos were killed yesterday; an extensive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and coming on the plain they were speared. They often go erect, but place the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus the Soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would not call him a ‘dear,’ but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him. Other animals, especially the Antelopes, are graceful, and it is pleasant to see them, either at rest or in motion; the natives also are well made, lithe and comely to behold; but the Soko, if large, would do well to stand for a picture of the devil. He takes away my appetite by his disgusting bestiality of appearance. His light yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology for a beard; the forehead, villainously low, with high ears, is well in the background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but the canines show the beast by their large development. The hands, or rather the fingers, are like those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is yellow; and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour it, leaves the impression that eating Sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at being cannibals; they say the flesh is delicious. The Soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully stalking men and women while at their work; kidnapping children, and running up trees with them, he seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the child; the young Soko, in such a case, would cling closely to the armpit of the elder. One man was cutting out honey from a tree, and naked, when a Soko suddenly appeared and caught him, then let him go; another man was hunting, and missed in his attempt to stab a Soko; it seized the spear, and broke it, then grappled with the man, who called to his companions, ‘Soko has caught me!’ The Soko bit off the ends of his fingers, and escaped unharmed. Both men are now alive at Bambarré.”

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG SOKO. (Copied by permission from the Engraving In Livingstone’s “Last Journal.”)

“The Soko is so cunning, and has such sharp eyes, that no one can stalk him in front without being seen; hence, when shot, it is always in the back; when surrounded by men and nets, he is generally speared in the back too, otherwise he is not a very formidable beast. He is nothing, as compared in power of damaging his assailant, to a Leopard or Lion, but is more like a man unarmed, for it does not occur to him to use his canine teeth, which are long and formidable. Numbers of them came down in the forest, within a hundred yards of our camp, and would be unknown but for giving tongue like Fox-hounds; this is their nearest approach to speech. A man, hoeing, was stalked by a Soko, and seized; he roared out, but the Soko giggled and grinned, and left him as if he had done it in play. A child, caught up by a Soko, is often abused by being pinched, and scratched, and let fall.”

SOKO HUNT. (After a Sketch by Dr. Livingstone.)

“The Soko kills the Leopard occasionally, by seizing both paws and biting them, so as to disable them; he then goes up a tree, groans over his wounds, and sometimes recovers, while the Leopard dies. At other times both Soko and Leopard die. The Lion kills him at once, and sometimes tears his limbs off, but does not eat him. The Soko eats no flesh; small bananas are his dainties, but not maize. His food consists of wild fruits, which abound, and of these one is like large sweet sop, but indifferent in taste. The Soko brings forth at times twins. A very large Soko was seen by Mohamad’s hunters, sitting picking his nails; they tried to stalk him, but he vanished. Some Manyuema think that their buried dead rise as Sokos, and one was killed with holes in his ears, as if he had been a man. He is very strong, and fears guns, but not spears. He never catches women.”

“Sokos collect together, and make a drumming noise, some say with hollow trees, then burst forth into loud yells, which are well imitated by the natives’ embryonic music. If a man has no spear, the Soko goes away satisfied; but if wounded, he seizes the wrist, lops off the fingers and spits them out, slaps the cheeks of his victim, and bites without breaking the skin; he draws out a spear (but never uses it), and takes some leaves and stuffs them into his wound to staunch the blood; he does not seek an encounter with an armed man. He sees women do him no harm, and never molests them; a man without a spear is nearly safe from him. Manyuema say, ‘Soko is a man, and nothing bad in him.’ They live in communities of about ten, each having his own female; an intruder from another camp is beaten off with their fists and loud yells. If one tries to seize the female of another, he is caught on the ground, and all unite in boxing and biting the offender. A male often carries a child, especially if they are passing from one patch of forest to another over a grassy space; he then gives it to the mother.”

The “Last Journals” contains a portrait of a young Soko (reproduced onpage 47), which shows a short-armed, weak-legged, long-eared creature; and in the engraving onpage 48, the adults which are being hunted are certainly very much shorter than the natives who are killing them. All that can be said, then, is that possibly the Soko is a kind of Troglodyte, greatly resembling the kind we have next to notice; but its geographical range is most interesting. Its being found so many hundreds of miles from the Sierra del Crystal, and beyond the woods of the coast-living Chimpanzees, would appear to prove that formerly there were forest and jungle far away to the east, where there are now plains, rivers, and lakes with much forest land.

CHIMPANZEE. (From a Sketch by Wolf, in the possession of the Zoological Society.)

The name Chimpanzee has sometimes been given to all the great Apes just described, but reference has been made, in considering some points in their anatomy and habits, to a particular animal which bears this name. This one comes next to them in the descending order of the scale of beings, and completes the number of the kinds of these man-shaped Apes of Equatorial Africa. It is the animal, the young of which have frequently been brought to England, where they have been celebrated for their gentle fun, romping play, good climbing, and their ability to imitate many human habits—clothes-wearing, tobacco-smoking, and tea-drinking especially. It is the Chimpanzee of Chimpanzees, the youngof which have such very human-looking faces and most baby-like skulls. Being covered for the most part, and especially on the top and sides of the head, with long black hairs, it is called the Black Chimpanzee, orTroglodytes niger.

It was a sight worth seeing to be present in the Monkey House of the Zoological Gardens, in London, when the keeper paid an early morning visit to his attached friend, the Chimpanzee. If he was not quite awake, or lazily inclined, and snugly covered up in his little wooden house, and the keeper called him, a commotion was heard inside, and then a round little figure with a large head came tumbling out, and rushed to the iron wicket. He creeps along at a great rate on all-fours, but the body is half erect, for the fore limbs are long, and the knuckles, or rather the back parts of the second joints of the fingers, are allowed to touch the ground and support the frame in front, whilst the elbows are kept straight. The hind legs, being short, move one after the other as in a canter, and it is readily noticed that although the feet touch the ground on their outer edges they can rest flat on the soles.

There is much joyful recognition, and after he has put his arms around the keeper’s neck, he enjoys being tickled and laid on his back in the straw. Making grunts and little laughs, he shows his fine set of teeth, and his fine hazel-coloured eyes twinkle with fun. Then he rushes off, tumbling head over heels, scampers over the straw, and with a jump clasps one of the horizontal wooden bars in the cage, and swings himself up and on to it with an ease and grace which many a gymnast might envy. Running along this, and just balancing himself with the assistance of the back of his hand, he nears a rope, and then, after seizing it, swings with arms out at full length, now catching hold of others or of the wire lattice-work with his feet and toe-thumb, or suddenly coming to the ground with a great bounce. This is usually preparatory to coming to the spectators, and he then squats down, folds his arms, and moves his shoulders from side to side in a quick and restless manner. Another scamper brings him to his house on the ground-floor, into which he looks, and then taking a lot of biscuit, he gives a jump on to its shelving top, sits down, and begins to eat. He sits upright enough, and puts the biscuit into his mouth, but rather clumsily. He does not take it between the tips of his fingers and the thumb, but between the thumb and the side of the first finger, for the thumb is short. Hence, as the food disappears, he appears to be cramming the knuckle of his first finger into his mouth.[12]

One is struck with the colour of the face, which is nearly hairless, for the tint of its skin is a dirty yellow-ochre; but it is relieved by the beautiful white teeth, the hazel eyes, and the long hair which comes down from the top of the head in front of the ear like a lock. The upper lip has no furrow running down from the small and flat nose, but it is very large, and the mouth looks like a slit in the face when both lips are together. He has distinct eyelids; and when he sits and looks forwards, the chin reaches below the top of the breast and hides the neck. The palm of the hands is flesh-coloured, or darker, and the foot looks very strange, for the hair is long over the ankle and very black, and it ceases suddenly, so that the heel and all the sides and the sole are naked and flesh-tinted. The absence of hair on the face—there being a little straggling beard only—is possibly an ornament, and it is noticed in many Monkeys; but its absence from the under part of the hand and foot, of course, is of use, for it gives a greater power of grasp and a finer sense of touch. The front hair comes to a peak over the forehead, and the curve on either side is as graceful as that of a Queen’s Counsel’s wig; then it covers a broad low head, which looks very big behind and decidedly over-burdened with two great ears, larger than those of the Gorilla, and which are close neighbours to the high shoulders. Long black hair, with the ears peering through, covers all the back and sides of the head and the wide shoulders and very short neck, and is continued down the back, which shows no sign of a waist, and only becomes smaller just above the thighs. Here, then, is another instance of the frog-like body shape, and it is produced by the same general internal arrangements which have been noticed in the great Apes already described. That is to say, large lungs, and a great stomach and digestive apparatus, are more important than a slim and elegant figure; and good short back-bones, and at least thirteen ribs on each side are more satisfactory possessions in an African forest than long bones and a weak spine.

The arm, fore-arm, and fingers, as a limb, are long, and the tips of the fingers reach just below the knee. This is consistent with the scheme of the construction of the animal, and its adaptationfor the forest life, which requires the ability to move rapidly and also to climb very easily. The arms are in constant movement when the Chimpanzee is walking, and if they are not assisting in the motion they are uplifted, the head being, moreover, carried a little forward with regard to the body. When the hands clasp a cross-bar, the little use of the small thumb is readily noticed, and the body is allowed to swing, as it were, at the full length of the arms, the thumb not assisting in holding on. But when it climbs a pole, it grasps just like a man under the same circumstances, and the thumb partly encircles the wood. It is very curious to feel the grasp of the hand, and the vigorous squeeze that the foot can give, and to look at the palms and soles. The palms seem very wrinkled across, but not to have a ball under the thumb of any size, and they seem narrow for their length. But although this is the case, and the thumb is short, they assist in grasping very forcibly. All the fingers and the thumbs have flat nails on them, which do not approach the character of a claw, and corresponding nails are found on the feet. All the heel is naked, as if it came through a hole in a stocking of black hair; and as a whole, the foot is shorter than the hand, the third toe being the longest. The toe-thumb is easily movable, and assists in climbing, for it grasps with the aid of the other toes very readily. Like the other large Apes already mentioned, it has no calf, and the legs seem to be too small for it, and to be stuck on to the body by small hips. The roundness behind is wanting, and therefore the muscles which particularly assist in the erect position are not large, as in man.

Yet at first sight there is something very human about the Chimpanzee; it looks like a very old child, and doubtless this is increased by its gentle habits and amiability; and there is every apology to be made for the early geographers and anatomists, who called it the “Pigmie.”

One of the first living Chimpanzees which was brought to England took strange dislikes to people. When it was brought on board the ship it would give its hand to be shaken by some, but refused it to others of the sailors with marks of anger, and it speedily became very familiar with the crew, except with a boy, to whom it never became reconciled. When the seamen’s mess was brought on deck, it was a constant attendant; it would go round and embrace each person, while it uttered loud yells, and then seated itself to enjoy the repast. If it was pleased at any favourite morsel, or if a piece of sweetmeat was given to it, satisfaction was expressed by a sound like a “hem,” in a grave tone; but if it was made angry or vexed, it would bark like a dog or cry like a child, and scratch itself most vehemently. It was active and cheerful in warm latitudes, but it became languid as it left the Torrid Zone, so that a blanket had to be given it as the English Channel was reached.

Bamboo, a Chimpanzee, once in the Zoological Society’s Gardens, Regent’s Park, and the subject of the following sketch, by Lieut. Sayers, “was purchased from a Mandingo, at Sierra Leone, who related that he had captured him in the Bullom country some months before, having first shot the mother, on which occasions the young ones never fail to remain by their wounded parents. On becoming mine, he was delivered over to a black boy, my servant, and in a few days became so attached to him as to be exceedingly troublesome, screaming and throwing himself into the most violent passion if he attempted to leave him for a moment. He evinced also a most strange affection for clothes, never omitting an opportunity of possessing himself of the first garment he came across, whenever he had the means of entering my apartment. He carried it immediately to the piazza, where invariably he seated himself on it with a self-satisfied grunt; nor would he resign it without a hard fight, and, on being worsted, exhibited every symptom of the greatest anger. Observing this strange fancy, I procured him a piece of cotton cloth, which, much to the amusement of all who saw him, he was never without, carrying it with him wherever he went, nor could any temptation induce him to resign it even for a moment. Totally unacquainted with their mode of living in the wild state, I adopted the following method of feeding him, which has appeared to succeed admirably. In the morning, at eight o’clock, he received a piece of bread, about the size of a halfpenny loaf, steeped in water or milk and water; about two, a couple of bananas or plantains; and before he retired for the night, a banana, orange, or slice of pine-apple. The banana appeared to be his favourite fruit; for it he would forsake all other viands, and if not gratified, would exhibit the utmost petulance. On one occasion I deemed it necessary to refuse him one, considering that he had already eaten a sufficiency, upon which he threw himself into the most violent passion, and uttering a piercing cry, knocked his head with such violence against the wall as to throw himself on his back, then ascending a chest which was near, wildly threw hisarms into the air and precipitated himself from it. These actions so alarmed me for his safety that I gave up the contest, and on doing so he evinced the greatest satisfaction at his victory, uttering for several minutes the most expressive grunts and cries; in short, he exhibited, on all occasions when his will was opposed, the impatient temper of a spoilt child; but even in the height of passion I never observed any disposition to bite or otherwise ill-treat his keeper or myself.

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