Midnight Assassins.
From the picture by Briton Riviere, R.A.
Chief amongst these interesting beings, whose general appearance, in spite of their hairiness, their semi-quadrupedal gait and their arboreal habits, distinguishes them amongst all other animals, as being next-of-kin to man, stands the great gorilla, who lives its life in the half-twilight gloom of the forests of equatorial Africa. What is this life? Unfortunately, the little we know of it is all in connection with the persecution which these creatures, like their relatives the orangs and chimpanzees, are always liable to, and too frequently endure, at the hands of man; so that very little concerning them, beyond how they behave when shot, has as yet been made known to us. The female gorilla, it would seem, makes a shelter of woven branches amongst the trees (as do both the species above mentioned) for herself and her young one; but whether the male, who is less arboreal, does this too, I am not so sure, and indeed Du Chaillu—who, though hardly ever mentioned by writers on natural history who yet follow him, knew more than anyone else about gorillas—does not, as far as I remember, give this as one of their habits. Be this as it may, the gorilla is the least arboreal of all the anthropoid apes, not climbing nearly so well or so frequently, even as the chimpanzee—its companion in the African forests—much less the orang-utan of Borneo and Sumatra, or the gibbon, another Asiatic species, which is the most active of all. Its great bulk would, no doubt, be against this, but as the size of any animal must stand in some sort of relation to its habits of life, it seems curious that a creature living in dense forests, and belonging to a climbing family, should have become so large as to impede its powers in this respect.
Now the male gorilla, standing, sometimes, six feet high, and being much huger and bulkier than the largest man of that height, is greatly superior in size to the female, whose stature does not often exceed four and a half feet; for which reason she appears to be, and probably is, more fitted for nimbleness and activity, amongst the branches of trees, than her huge and heavy-bodied mate. But what has led to this great disparity of size between the male and female gorilla—a disparity which does not exist to anything like the same extent in the other man-like apes? Both are nourished by the same food; both must lead—or, if they do not now, must at any rate once have led—the very same life; therefore, as it would seem, there must be some special reason for their size and strength differing so greatly. It does not seem to be quite certain whether polygamy is, or is not, the custom amongst gorillas, but there can be little doubt that the rival males often fight together, for the possession of the females. The natives showed Du Chaillu some skulls of these great apes, that had the canine teeth of the upper jaw—which in the male gorilla are almost as large as a lion’s—broken off, and this, they said, had been done in some tremendous conflict of this sort, in which their owners had been engaged. Now if the male gorillas, besides being accustomed to fight for the females, are also polygamous, this may be a reason why they have become so much larger than the latter, for the largest and strongest amongst them would always have won, and so, by collecting together a more numerous harem, would have left a greater number of offspring to inherit their size and ferocity. The females, however, not fighting, would not have grown larger in the same way, for though, in nature, the qualities of one sex are often transmitted to the other, this is by no means always the case. Generally, indeed, if not always, where there is polygamy, the sexes differ much both in size and appearance.
What a sight amidst these gloomy forests must be the contention in fierce rivalry of two full-grown male gorillas! We may imagine one—the more favoured suitor—sitting on the ground, his back, as is usual, against the trunk of a tree, and his arm flung carelessly about the object of his regard; the great fingers of the wonderfully human hand burying themselves in her fur. All at once the peaceful nature of the scene is rudely disturbed by the frowning presence of another male, whilst the silence is as suddenly broken by a terrific barking cry, passing into a long, loud, sullen, reverberating roar. The unwelcome comer has been, at first, upon all fours, but now he rears himself upon his short hind legs, and leaving the screen of heavy frondage that has hitherto partially concealed him, advances into the open space beneath this tropical trysting-tree. As he does so, the female discreetly retires, whilst her spouse, or lover, assuming also the erect posture, comes forward to meet his rival. The two advance upon each other with ferocious mien, they roar alternately, or in unison, and beat, at intervals, with their doubled fists upon the vast convexity of their chests, producing in this way a deep, continuous, hollow sound, like the rolling of a muffled drum. As the distance between them decreases, the eyes of each seem to flash more fiercely, whilst the crest of hair upon the forehead is drawn rapidly up and down, with a twitching motion, by the angry contraction of the facial muscles. At length, and with a final roar, when separated by but a few paces, each drops upon its knuckles,[19] and springs, almost at the same time, upon the other. Were it a man that either encountered, he would instantly be stretched dead or dying upon the ground, but here terrific strength upon the one side is met by force as great upon the other, and the combat is as long and as dubious as it is furious and violent.
After a heavy blow or two dealt with the open palm, the aim of either champion would, probably, be to pull the other towards him, so as to inflict a wound with the powerful canine teeth. As a result there would soon be a deadlock, in which the two great creatures, pressed together and grappling in a close embrace, would gnash and tear furiously at one another. As long as the limbs were not free, the fighting would be entirely with the teeth, and as these would probably be used to parry as well as to inflict wounds, they would constantly clash together, and might thus sometimes be broken off. How, or for how long, such a combat would be likely to proceed, what might be its result, whether the provoker of it—the bashful young gorillaress—would be unconcerned during its continuance or stand regarding it with an anxious eye from her retreat amidst the undergrowth of the forest, whether, too, by manifesting a choice she would become an active agent in the life’s happiness, or otherwise, of the two grim pretendants to her favours, or go off passively with either one or the other, as mere spoils of the victor, it is not in our power to say, nor will we here further consider. Had there been as much desire to see and study the habits of the great man-ape, as there has been to procure specimens of him, which add but little to our knowledge, and that in the least interesting way, we might be well informed on all these points and many others, but, as it is, we must wait till real naturalists—people, that is to say, who love watching animals and hate killing them—go out to these regions—they are wanted everywhere. Doubtless, bad wounds are sometimes inflicted by male gorillas upon one another, in these tremendous encounters, but probably they are never fatal, since the huge framework would be as potent to resist injury as the giant strength would be to inflict it, and a gorilla that had not yet arrived at maturity would never think of trying conclusions with a full-grown one.
Though the above picture is merely imaginary, yet it is not, perhaps, altogether void of foundation. It is natural to suppose that in attacking one of his own species, the gorilla would employ the same methods of warfare as he does against his only extraneous enemy—man; and that these are such as I have described them, the following account will show. “We walked,” says Du Chaillu, “with the greatest care, making no noise at all. The countenances of the men showed that they thought themselves engaged in a very serious undertaking; but we pushed on till 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 I shall never forget. Nearly six feet high (he proved four inches shorter), with immense body, huge chest, and great, muscular arms, with fiercely glaring, large, deep grey eyes, and a hellish expression of face, which seemed to me like some nightmare vision: thus stood before us this king of the African forest. He was not afraid of us. He stood there and beat his breast with his huge fists, till it resounded like an immense bass-drum, which is their mode of offering defiance; meantime giving vent to roar after roar. 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 truly,” exclaims Du Chaillu—upon whom, evidently, no striking sight or impressive experience was thrown away—“he reminded me of nothing but some hellish dream-creature—a being of that hideous order, half man, half beast, which we find pictured by old artists in some representations of the infernal 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.” At this point the poor gorilla, who, whatever his appearance may have been, could not, certainly, in the malignity of his intentions have surpassed Du Chaillu himself, was shot. In another moment he would, no doubt, have launched himself upon his assailants—for such the party really were—and the picture would have been reversed, except that the “half man” would have been guiltless of any premeditated design against the life of an unoffending fellow-creature.
In another encounter we find the same distribution of blame as between the whole man and the half one, but luck here is on the side of the latter. “Our little party separated, as is the custom, to stalk the wood in various directions. Gambo and I kept together. One brave fellow went off alone in a direction where he thought he could find a gorilla. The other three took another course. We had been about an hour separated when Gambo and I heard a gun fired but a little way from us, and presently another. We were already on our way to the spot, where we hoped to see a gorilla slain, when the forest began to resound with the most terrific roars. Gambo seized my arms in great agitation, and we hurried on, both filled with a dreadful and sickening alarm. We had not gone far when our worst fears were realised. The poor, brave fellow who had gone off alone was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood, and I thought at first quite dead. His bowels were protruding through the lacerated abdomen. Beside him lay his gun. The stock was broken, and the barrel was bent and flattened. It bore plainly the marks of the gorilla’s teeth. When the unlucky hunter revived a little, he told the following story. He said that he had met the gorilla suddenly and face to face, and that it had not attempted to escape. It was, he said, a huge male, and seemed very savage. It was in a very gloomy part of the wood, and the darkness, I suppose, made him miss. He said he took good aim, and fired when the beast was only about eight yards off. The ball merely wounded it in the side. It at once began beating its chest, and with the greatest rage advanced upon him. To run away was impossible. He would have been caught in the jungle before he had gone a dozen steps. He stood his ground, and as quickly as he could reloaded his gun. Just as he raised it to fire, the gorilla dashed it out of his hands, the gun going off in the fall; then in an instant, and with a terrible roar, the animal gave him a tremendous blow with its immense open paw, frightfully lacerating the abdomen, and with this single blow laying bare part of the intestines. As he sank bleeding to the ground the monster seized the gun, and the poor hunter thought he would have his brains dashed out with it. But the gorilla seems to have looked upon this also as an enemy, and in his rage almost flattened the barrel between his strong jaws.”
It is not quite certain from either of these accounts whether the gorilla made his final onslaught in the upright or the quadrupedal attitude. It seems more likely that the former is intended, but I cannot help thinking myself that in the quick rush at the end of the leisurely advance the creature would adopt his usual mode of progression, which is a sort of shambling amble on all fours, but with the fore part of the body so raised above the ground, on account of the great length of the fore arms, as to make it of a transitional character. If, for instance, a man’s arms were so long that he could lean on them when running, and merely stooped a little in order to do so, we should hardly say that his gait was quadrupedal—and this is how the gorilla walks or runs under ordinary circumstances.