. The world of the great forest : how animals, birds, reptiles, insects talk, think, work and live . s had to be made, for sometimesthey seized the bars with such power that there wasdanger that they would break. Ntchiko never showedthe slightest sign of tameness, except that he wouldtake food, such as apples, bananas, nuts, etc., from thehand of his keeper, who had to be very careful whenhe handed these to him. In front of their cage was arailing, so that no spectator should get within thereach of their long arms. Johannas face as she grew older became graduallyblack, but with patches of yell
. The world of the great forest : how animals, birds, reptiles, insects talk, think, work and live . s had to be made, for sometimesthey seized the bars with such power that there wasdanger that they would break. Ntchiko never showedthe slightest sign of tameness, except that he wouldtake food, such as apples, bananas, nuts, etc., from thehand of his keeper, who had to be very careful whenhe handed these to him. In front of their cage was arailing, so that no spectator should get within thereach of their long arms. Johannas face as she grew older became graduallyblack, but with patches of yellow. She was moreamenable to the keeper than Ntchiko, but neverthe-less he never dared to go inside of her cage, for heknew what his fate would be in case she objected tohis presence, and he did not want to be killed. Strange to say, the two apes were never friendly, 315 THE WORLD OF THE GREAT FOREST though their cages inside were only separated by ironbars through which they could shake hands andscratch each other if they wished. On this accountthose who had charge of the show never dared to ex-. tirEfON— periment by putting Johanna and Ntchiko together,for fear that they would fight, and Ntchiko, who wasthe stronger, would kill Johanna. After the travelling season was over, Ntchiko andJohanna wintered in New York at the Arsenal in 316 A NKENGO AND A NSHIEGO Central Park, and had very comfortable and warmquarters. One day, Friend Paul, who was living in NewYork, went to see them, having heard of their fameand of the excitement they created. As he came before their cages, he imitated thelanguage of the nkengo, which he had so far heard inthe great forest of Africa. To his utter astonishment,as soon as Ntchiko heard him, he became furious,uttered terrific yells of anger, jumped from one sideof his large cage to the other, went to the farthest cor-ner, picked up some sawdust from the floor and threwit at him, then came toward him and behind his ironbars showed every disposition
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectanimals, bookyear1901
