plete heads strongly resembles certain elaborated drawings of the so-called earth-bowl, frequently pictured in Nahuan codices (figure 17, b). Arguing from complex towards simpler forms, Dr Gordon1 refers the origin of this symbolic figure to the modified serpent's head, explaining that the serpent passed by degenerate conventionalization into "abstract forms representing definite ideas, in no way associated in our minds with the serpent." In the case of the earth-bowl the serpent element must surely be a later religious or artistic addition. The hollow land that holds lakes or seas, and the grave that encloses the dead were each directly and quite naturally represented by the graphic simile of a bowl. The sides of this bowl were fair field for any embellishment the artist chose to put there although it is possible that the presence of the serpent might have served some secondary religious purpose.

When the profile heads are arranged in a series (figure 18) some interesting changes are to be noted. None of these heads contains. all the features. The most complete profile head is a which makes half a front view face on slab B. The more simplified face b is also only a portion of a face that is folded around two corners; note the absence of the lower jaw. The incomplete face shown in c is one of the fused-together heads; note its similarity to a in general outlines. The figure 8 decoration around the border, as well is in the mouth of the next head, has been explained as a Nahuan astronomical symbol. Since native explanations are lacking such identification is pure guess work. Profile heads d, e, and ƒ all show a peculiar device attached to the eye. Somewhat similar eye ornaments are found on carvings from the Calchaqui of Argentina and the moundbuilders of the United States but, of course, no significance is to be given to this fact. The last head from the shell arm-band is the most incomplete of all. Only the eye with its appendage can be definitely made out. It seems probable, although by no means certain, that these profile heads were intended to represent the ever recurring serpent.

The double-headed serpent, commonly represented in Central

1G. B. Gordon, The serpent motive in the ancient art of Central America and Mexico, in Trans. of the Dept. of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, I, pt. 3, 1905, p. 10.

America and Mexico, may have been intended by the design on each side of the plain panel at the base of slab B. The vertical strips of geometric ornament may form the body, and half of each lower and upper front view face may form the heads. The decoration of one

e

f

FIG. 18. Series of profile faces: a, slab B, lower part; b, larger table urn; c, slab B upper part; d, slab A, lower part; e, slab A, upper part; f, shell bracelet.

body would then be the guilloche which Dr Gordon derives from the serpent on no stronger grounds than that snakes in design were sometimes thrown into this primitive mode of order. The design on the other body would have geometric figures common from Peru to the Pueblos of the Southwest.

To sum up: The multiplicity of possible connections between these sculptures and those of Central America and the Valley of Mexico seems to indicate pretty clearly that the ancient culture of Placeres del Oro was more closely related to the Nahua than to the Tarascans. But there is such a strong note of individuality that we are almost justified in naming these artifacts as masterpieces of a new culture area. Certainly, these interesting specimens should stimulate further exploration in this little known region.

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY,

NEW YORK CITY.

BULU KNOWLEDGE OF THE GORILLA AND

THE

CHIMPANZEE

BY ALBERT ERNEST JENKS

`HE following facts are from data gathered at my request by Mr Francis B. Guthrie, recently of Kolodorf, Kamerun province, German West Africa. Mr Guthrie says it is almost impossible for the white man in Kamerun, though in the center of the gorilla's geographic range, to have intimate knowledge of that animal. He has known of only one white man who has killed a gorilla there in five years.

The facts here presented were obtained from members of the Bulu tribe whom Mr Guthrie has known intimately for some years, and with whose language he is familiar. They were verified by other natives than the original informants; but Mr Guthrie calls attention to the Bulu's credulity and his decided tendency to exaggerate.

THE GORILLA

The gorillas of Kamerun live in small companies, scarcely to be called families, except in the younger days of the band when only two, three, or four individuals are found together. A company seldom comprises more than twelve members, and is said never to exceed fifteen or sixteen. The smaller companies consist of one male with his one, two, or three wives, and some small children. A company of six or seven members would probably have two adult males. As the younger members grow up they take, or rather keep, their places in the company. When the old male becomes cross, or possibly, it may be, too infirm to travel with the company, he goes off by himself and spends the rest of his life without companionship. As to whether this isolation is from individual choice, or whether the females refuse to have more to do with the old male, or whether the young males band together and force his retirement, the natives do not agree. "But," says Mr Guthrie, "we know that

isolation of the old males prevails among the drills, chimpanzees, monkeys, wild hogs, and elephants in the African jungles." The natives have absolutely no knowledge of the genesis of new families or companies.

The female bears only one child at a birth, and apparently prepares no special bed in anticipation. Until the child is strong enough to travel the mother carries it with her much of the time, clasping her arm around it. She picks the child up by one arm, often cradling it in her two arms as the human mother does her child. The natives note in this conduct one of the gorilla's greatest likenesses to man.

The gorilla seldom, if ever, sleeps two successive nights in the same place. In the virgin forest he commonly makes a "bed" on the ground. This consists of a few poles, usually dead wood laid side by side. Sometimes the bed is made in a low branch of a leafy

Apparently each gorilla sleeps by himself, and the beds are made some little distance apart. When, as is very common, the night is spent in old gardens, the tall reeds are broken down and the gorilla sleeps on a bed of leaves from two to four feet from the ground. The gorilla goes to bed late and rises early.

The foraging is also done independently as a rule, although it is frequently claimed and more or less generally believed by the Bulu that the "old man" sometimes has his food brought to him, as, for instance, when the gorillas are eating the fruit of a tall tree. They find most of their food very early in the morning or late in the day. They also commonly feed on moonlight nights. No record is found that they store food. Their food consists of many kinds of forest fruits, from shrubs and trees, and also of such bananas, plantains and sugar cane as they can secure from the more or less deserted "old" gardens. These gardens are their common haunts. They stay for days, weeks, or even months in one section, and then suddenly change locality. They usually return at the next season; and thus are seasonal migrants.

The gorilla usually walks upright as he travels and feeds on the ground, and he spends very little time in the trees-probably none, except for food or an occasional sleep. Gorillas are commonly

very timid and flee at man's approach, but the Bulu natives fear them greatly, and with some reason, for when a large male attacks a man, that man must be strong and crafty to come out alive. However, only when a gorilla's family is in danger from man, or when a male is wounded or savagely attacked, will the gorilla attack a native. At such times he shows much craftiness as well as great strength. Mr Guthrie relates:

"In one instance a band of gorillas was attacked by two Bulu men. The old gorilla of the band first got his family out of danger, and then returned to the encounter. He made a considerable detour behind the hunters in the endeavor to ambush them. Fortunately they heard him breaking through the bushes and thus avoided a most unpleasant meeting."

Again Mr Guthrie says:

"One native who is well known to me, shot a gorilla and was attacked immediately by another, which, fortunately for him, was a very old female that had lost most of her teeth. The man was therefore able to kill her with his knife, but not until she had mauled and torn him terribly. There is little doubt that had the attacking gorilla been a large able male, the man would have been killed."

The Bulu natives commonly believe that a wounded gorilla is rescued and carried away by its companions. And Mr Guthrie presents one "authentic instance" as grounds for such belief. A Bulu once shot a gorilla, and, thinking it dead, cut off a foot to take back to his village. On returning the next morning with companions, the natives discovered that the body was gone, but they followed a trail leading away for fully a mile, where they found the gorilla dead. The trail was stained with blood, and the marks along the trail plainly showed that the gorilla had been carried.

The native rates the gorilla as superior to most of the other forest animals of Kamerun, though he wins this distinction more because of his prowess as a fighter than because of his exceptional sagacity. However, he has a reputation for his usual ability to avoid traps, and his ability to free himself even from woven nets, when, very infrequently, he is caught in them. The chimpanzee is recognized as intellectually much superior to the gorilla.