He Would Go Into The Bush After Them While Other
People Were Resting, And Particularly After The Sort Which, When
Split, Is Bright Yellow, And Very Supple And Excellent To Tie Round
Loads.
On one occasion, between Egaja and Esoon, he came back from one of
these quests and wanted me to come and see something, very quietly;
I went, and we crept down into a rocky ravine, on the other side of
which lay one of the outermost Egaja plantations.
When we got to
the edge of the cleared ground, we lay down, and wormed our way,
with elaborate caution, among a patch of Koko; Wiki first, I
following in his trail.
After about fifty yards of this, Wiki sank flat, and I saw before me
some thirty yards off, busily employed in pulling down plantains,
and other depredations, five gorillas: one old male, one young
male, and three females. One of these had clinging to her a young
fellow, with beautiful wavy black hair with just a kink in it. The
big male was crouching on his haunches, with his long arms hanging
down on either side, with the backs of his hands on the ground, the
palms upwards. The elder lady was tearing to pieces and eating a
pine-apple, while the others were at the plantains destroying more
than they ate.
They kept up a sort of a whinnying, chattering noise, quite
different from the sound I have heard gorillas give when enraged, or
from the one you can hear them giving when they are what the natives
call "dancing" at night. I noticed that their reach of arm was
immense, and that when they went from one tree to another, they
squattered across the open ground in a most inelegant style,
dragging their long arms with the knuckles downwards. I should
think the big male and female were over six feet each. The others
would be from four to five. I put out my hand and laid it on Wiki's
gun to prevent him from firing, and he, thinking I was going to
fire, gripped my wrist.
I watched the gorillas with great interest for a few seconds, until
I heard Wiki make a peculiar small sound, and looking at him saw his
face was working in an awful way as he clutched his throat with his
hand violently.
Heavens! think I, this gentleman's going to have a fit; it's lost we
are entirely this time. He rolled his head to and fro, and then
buried his face into a heap of dried rubbish at the foot of a
plantain stem, clasped his hands over it, and gave an explosive
sneeze. The gorillas let go all, raised themselves up for a second,
gave a quaint sound between a bark and a howl, and then the ladies
and the young gentleman started home. The old male rose to his full
height (it struck me at the time this was a matter of ten feet at
least, but for scientific purposes allowance must be made for a
lady's emotions) and looked straight towards us, or rather towards
where that sound came from.
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