"The countenances of the men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious undertaking; but we pushed on, until finally we thought we saw through the thick woods the moving of the branches and small trees which the great beast was tearing down, probably to get from them the berries and fruits he lives on.
"Suddenly, as we were yet creeping along, in a silence which made a heavy breath seem loud and distinct, the woods were at once filled with the tremendous barking roar of the gorilla.
"Then the underbrush swayed rapidly just ahead, and presently before us stood an immense male gorilla. He had gone through the jungle on all fours, but when he saw our party he erected himself and looked us boldly in the face.
"He stood about a dozen yards from us, and was a sight, I think, never to forget. Nearly six feet high, with immense body, huge chest, and great muscular arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep-gray eyes and a malignant expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision,—thus before us stood the king of the African forests.
"He was not afraid of us. He stood there and beat his breast with his huge fists till it sounded like an immense bass drum, which is their mode of offering defiance, meantime giving vent to roar after roar.
"The roar of the gorilla is the most singular and awful noise heard in these African woods. It begins with a sharp bark, like an angry dog, then glides into a deep bass roll, which literally and closely resembles the roll of distant thunder along the sky, for which I have sometimes been tempted to take it where I did not see the animal. So deep is it that it seems to proceed less from the mouth and throat than from the deep chest of the creature.
"His eyes began to flash fiercer fire as we stood motionless on the defensive, and the crest of short hair which stands on his forehead began to twitch rapidly up and down, while his powerful fangs were shown as he again sent forth a thunderous roar.
"And now he truly reminded me of nothing but some horrible dream creature,—a being of that hideous order, half man, half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the lower regions.
"He advanced a few steps, then stopped to utter that hideous roar again, advanced again, and finally stopped when at a distance of about six yards from us. And here, as he began another of his roars, and beating his breast in rage, we fired, and killed him. With a groan which had something terribly human in it, and yet was full of brutishness, he fell forward on his face."
As soon as the great beast was dead, the men cut up the carcass and divided it in portions to be cooked. The brains were carefully preserved as charms. When prepared in one way, the charm gives the wearer a mighty arm for the chase; when in another, it renders the possessor popular and a favorite in savage society.