. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. BELIEFS OF THE NATIVES. tlisappearance of one of theii- companions, who is hoisted up into a tree, uttering, perhaps, only a short choking sob. In a few minutes he falls to the ground a strangled corpse, for the animal, watching his oi)portnnity, has let dowa his huge hind-hand and seized the passing negro by the neck with a vice- like "rip, and has drawn liim up into the branches, dropping him when life and struggling have ceixsed. The missionaries, when they were established in the Gaboon region, found that all along the coast the G
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. BELIEFS OF THE NATIVES. tlisappearance of one of theii- companions, who is hoisted up into a tree, uttering, perhaps, only a short choking sob. In a few minutes he falls to the ground a strangled corpse, for the animal, watching his oi)portnnity, has let dowa his huge hind-hand and seized the passing negro by the neck with a vice- like "rip, and has drawn liim up into the branches, dropping him when life and struggling have ceixsed. The missionaries, when they were established in the Gaboon region, found that all along the coast the Gorillas were believed by the natives to be luiman beings, members of tlieir own race degenerated. Some natives who had been a little civilised, and who thought a little moi-e than the rest, did not acknow- ledge this relationship, but considered them as embodied spirits, the belief in the transmigration of souls. FEMALE GOKILH WD 101 ^ f (From the T 311 ncl is J ihc Zoolyj >.al ioudij nfLonlon) being prevalent. They siid that the enchp elo oi Chmipanzee his the spnit of a coai>tman, being less fierce and more intelligent thin the enr//> ena, oi Goiilla -which liis tint of a bvhhman The majoiity however, fully l)elie\ed them to be men, ind seemed to be uniflected by the aiguments ofleied to disprove this fancy; and this was especially true of the tribes in the immediate vicinity of the locality. They believed them to be literally wild men of the woods. Nevertheless, they were eaten when they could be got, and their flesh, with that of the Chimpanzee and other Monkeys, fonned and still forms a prominent place in the bill of fare. Impressed thus with a belief in their kinship and of their ferocity, it was not surpi-ising that live Gorillas could not be obtained by European ti-avellers. Even a bold and skilful hunter of the elephant, when pressed to bring in one, declared he would not do it for a mountain of gold. In 18-1:7 the first sight of a part of a Gorilla was obtain
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