The ourang-outang on my right now commenced smelling me under the nose after the fashion in which deer sniff each other, then he examined my hair most attentively, evidently with intentions which my English habits of cleanliness rendered altogether unnecessary. The other ourang-outang having first of all pulled off my shoes, next amused himself with the ingeniousness of a child who wishes at any cost to discover how it is that his spring doll raises and lowers its arms, by bending my toes backwards and forwards, appearing perfectly astonished and somewhat indignant, that a man was as well formed as an ape. These two terrible valets-de-chambre bent upon bestowing their attentions on my person caused me the most frightful distress; for the ourang-outang at my feet, induced, no doubt, by his success with my shoes and stockings, next essayed to pull off my trousers. I would willingly have let him done so, but the ourang-outang at my head opposed him with all his strength, evidently desiring to relieve me of these garments in his own way; a way, I may observe, in which it is perfectly impossible for trousers to be removed. There were first of all some sinister tuggings, then the strife gradually became sullen and obstinate; and at last it was something terrible. I was conscious of this from the successive giving way of buttons, and from the stretching and cracking of the garments under the efforts of these two formidable antagonists, whose field of battle would, in a few moments, most likely be my own body; which would become a prey to their remorseless instinct of destruction, and be torn to pieces by their long, sharp fangs and harpy-like claws.
My death seemed inevitable—I resolved to defend my life to the utmost of my power, and with this view gently slipped my hands into my pockets and drew forth my two pistols without arousing the slightest suspicion. As matters were progressing very fast, I forthwith pointed one of them towards the ourang-outang at my feet, and the other towards his companion at my head, hoping that if I were forced to fire I might succeed in killing both my persecutors, whose deaths would, as a matter of course, be immediately followed by my own. The fate which would await me after this double murder was certainly not doubtful. The two or three hundred apes who were present as spectators of this sight would certainly tear me into more pieces than they had torn my cravat. The fatal moment seems to be approaching! My nether garments give way—I place a finger on each trigger. When all at once a shriek is heard, such a shriek as only a locomotive with its breath of fire can send forth from its iron-bound breast; and which was prolonged from echo to echo like claps of thunder rolling down a valley.
CHAPTER III.
I am attacked with delirium.—I set out on a journey of discovery in the dead of night.—I encounter a boa, and a bat with gigantic wings.—I reach the sea shore.—Simplicity of the oyster; acuteness of the Ape.—I hoist a signal, and then fall asleep from sheer exhaustion.
I open my eyes and perceive this crowd of apes all flying off, in the same direction, with the rapidity of a cannon-ball. Thousands upon thousands of tails streak the horizon. These at length disappear, and fainter and fainter grows that chattering noise with which they have sought to excite one another to triple their speed, till at last it sounds merely like a tingling in the ear when one is troubled with a rush of blood to the head. The air is pure, the earth has already recovered its serenity, as after the disappearance of some fetid mist; I spring to my feet, I breathe freely, I feel as though I were born again! But whence came this marvellous shriek? and what strange creature had given utterance to it? Was it a leopard wounded to death? Was it merely some amorous tiger? Was it a human being? No, it could not have been. And how came it, too, to be so generally comprehended? How was I to discover this? Of whom could I inquire? Silence and solitude had in the twinkling of an eye taken the place of the frightful tumult and the savage and grotesque scenes of a few moments before, but did this shriek signal the fall of the curtain, or merely the conclusion of an act of the drama? Was it, in plain words, an end or only a momentary suspension—this spontaneous dispersion of all the monsters, who had left me as it were by a miracle? Night was approaching; in fact, it had already set in. What was I to do? What was to become of me in the midst of this scattered colony, among unknown hordes which my imagination pictured as only the more frightful, the longer they delayed to show themselves!
I might remain very well where I was till the next day, but had I not reason to fear the return of my enemies, who would reappear more determined than ever to torment me with their inexhaustible tricks, and more particularly so now that they knew how much my superior they were both in boldness and strength? On the other hand, where could I go without encountering the risk of being devoured by the thousands of wild animals which doubtless lay crouching, swollen with rage, within the shadow of these almost impenetrable jungles?