CHAPTER XVII.

THE GORILLA HUNT.

The Gorilla Dance.-On the Track.-Disappointment.

IN describing one of the many days which I passed in search of the Great Invisible, I shall describe all; for the gorilla country, from the Muni on the north to the Fernand Vaz on the south, presents an agreeable uniformity in its features and productions.

I had been out several times in the Ngumbi forest, where gorillas are certainly more abundant than in any other bush which I have visited, and had begun to despair of success, when, one evening, Etia, the chief hunter of the village, came and told me that he had heard the cry of a njina close to one of the neighboring plantations. He said that we should certainly be able to kill him the next day, and that during the night he and his friends. would celebrate the gorilla dance.

This Etia was a Mchâgâ slave. His skin, to use Oshupu's comparison, was like that of an 'old alligator-all horny and wrinkled; his left hand had been crippled by the teeth of a gorilla; his face was absurdly hideous, and yet reminded me of something which I had seen before. After puzzling myself for a long time, I at last remembered that it was the mask which Mr. Ryder wore in the character of Caliban at the Princess's which Etia resembled so closely. That night I could well have imagined him less man than monster. In the house allotted to the slaves, three old men, their faces grotesquely chalked, played the drum, the sounding log, and the one-stringed harp. To them danced Etia, imitating the uncouth movements of the gorilla. Then the iron bell was rung, and Ombuiri, the Evil Spirit, was summoned to attend, and a hoarse rattle mingled with the other sounds. The dancers rushed yelling into the midst, and sprang into the air. There would be a pause, broken only by the faint, slow tinkling of the harp; then the measure grew quicker and quicker, and the drum would be beaten, and the sticks thundered on the log.

In another dance Caliban assumed the various attitudes pecul

iar to the ape. Now he would be seated on the ground, his legs apart, his hands resting on his knees, his head drooping, and in his face the vacant expression of the brute; sometimes he folded his arms on his forehead. Suddenly he would raise his head with prone ears and flaming eyes, while a loud shout of applause would prove how natural it was. In the chorus all the dancers assumed such postures as these, while Etia, climbing ape-like up the pole which supported the roof, towered above them all.

In the third dance he imitated the gorilla getting attacked and being killed. The man who played the hunter inimitably acted terror and irresolution before he pulled the trigger of his imaginary gun. Caliban, as Gorilla, charged upon all-fours, and fell dead at the man's feet, in the act of attempting to seize him with one hand.

You may be sure that nothing short of seeing a gorilla in its wild state could have afforded me so much interest, or given me so good a clew to the animal's real habits; for here could be no imposture. It was not an entertainment arranged for my benefit, but a religious festival held on the eve of an enterprise.

I staid up all night, for I was too excited to sleep, and the dancing was not discontinued till cock-crow. Etia told me to get my. self ready, for that when the cock crowed the third time it would. be light. My fire and kettle were prepared, and I took my breakfast in the dark. Etia, who had danced for hours, but who had not perspired, and who wanted no refreshment, also prepared for the chase. A box in the shape of a bandbox, made of the bark of a tree, contained his ammunition; the locks of his gun were covered by a piece of monkey-skin; he took off his iron bell, his ornaments-every thing, in short, but his waist-cloth..

Taking with me a Camma man named Tsambo, who could speak a little English, we started in the gray morning dusk. We passed the first plantation after half a mile through shrubby vegetation. Then we descended a steep hill, and entered a valley of black mud, over which logs had been thrown by way of stepping-stones; and upon them, being narrow and slimy, I found it difficult to maintain my equilibrium. Now we were in the forest. Sometimes a little brown squirrel, with black stripes on his back and sides, would run through the bushes; or a black monkey would make off, jumping from tree to tree with a huge crash, and chattering all the while, as if knowing that I had it in my power to have his skin made into a muff for a Regent Street window.

These, with the stridulent chirping of the cicada, which Anacreon could sing, but which I could only curse, were all the sounds I heard.

We came to a plantation at some distance from the town. It filled a valley. Etia and his brother hunter pointed to the hill which rose on the other side, and, skirting the plantation, we kept to the hill and wound our way toward it. When we had reached the other side Etia became black marble. I looked down and saw, as I had often seen it before, the fresh track of a gorilla. They followed it with the instinct of a beast of prey. A particle of earth or rotten wood misplaced, a speck of mud upon a fallen leaf, a bent twig, was enough for them. The track led us into thick undergrowth. Here we crawled on all-fours along the path which the beast had made. Leaves and small branches fresh torn bestrewed the path, and sometimes a sturdier one rent in twain displayed the power of that mighty arm. Etia gave a low like that of a gazelle, and pointed to some dung still smoking. It was now agreed that the two Mchâgâs should reconnoitre, and, if either succeeded in finding him at feed, they should return and guide me to the spot. So they crept off, taking a few paces and then stopping, like an ape crawling through the wood and feeding on his way. After a little while I heard the cry of a forest bird. This was a signal. They returned, Etia with a bunch of plantains. The track had taken us back to the plantation. The gorilla had been feeding, and had just torn this bunch of plantains from a tree. He had smelt Etia and had bolted.

cry,

We toiled along for some time, and in the afternoon we came suddenly upon the track again. It happened to be a moist soil, and we were able to follow it up rapidly, and soon we could hear the ape breaking the branches ahead of us. The two non-combatants now remained behind, and Etia and I crawled cautiously till we were very close to the gorilla, which was slowly retreating before us, breaking the branches as it went.

I was trembling all over, and I could feel my eyes dilating as if they would burst from my head. I grasped my gun tightly and clenched my teeth. At length I was to be rewarded for my five months' labors and disappointment.

But I happened to step on a dry branch, which broke (as it seemed to me) with a sound like thunder. The noise ahead of us ceased for a moment. Then there was a mighty rush, followed by infernal silence. The gorilla had run away!