The kooloo-kamba is born black and remains so all his life. He is a strong-looking creature. He has an almost round head, prominent cheek-bones, large ears (a characteristic of all the men of the woods), and is about the size of the nkengo.
The nshiegos, the mbouvés, the nkengos, the kooloo-kambas have long arms, big ears, elongated hands and feet, and long fingers, thus showing that a great part of their lives is spent upon trees.
The nginas, on the contrary, have very small ears, broad, powerful, and short hands, short fingers, thick, broad, short feet of great strength and power for grasping, and have shorter arms than all the other apes.
All the apes use their feet as hands.
The mbouvés and the nkengos are the two most intelligent of the men of the woods. They are the only ones that build bowers on the trees, so that they can say they have a home.
The ngina is by far the fiercest of all the apes, and builds no shelter of any kind whatever, and he is such a huge feeder that he has to roam through the forest more than all the other apes.
CHAPTER XIX
THE NGINAS, OR GORILLAS, AND NJOKOOS, OR ELEPHANTS
Huge male ngina, or gorilla, was standing perfectly still one day in a very dense part of the forest. He was thinking. He looked fierce and ugly. His intensely black face was furrowed with deep wrinkles. Under his overhanging brows, his gray, vindictive eyes seemed to flash hate and ferocity. His neck was so short that his head appeared set on his huge broad shoulders,—a sign of his herculean strength. His chest was so broad that two human beings side by side standing behind him could not have been seen. His belly protruded, his arms were of immense strength, and his body was supported by short, flexible muscular legs without calves.
Looking down finally at his feet, he exclaimed, “With these I can clutch.” What a big foot he had! Then he stretched his long muscular arms and looked at the palms of his hands, which were as hard as horn, then at his callous fingers and at his black nails, and muttered, “When I strike with these, I kill. I break the ribs of creatures, or I kill them outright, and when my hands hold something, nothing is powerful enough to take it away from my clutches;” and he grinned and looked more horrid and repulsive than before.
