After this he was never quiet for a moment if he could see or hear me, until I secured another of his kind for a companion; then his interest in me abated in a measure, but his affection for me remained intact.
His conduct towards Moses always impressed me with the belief that he appreciated the fact that he was in distress or pain, and while he may not have foreseen the result, he certainly knew what death was when he saw it. Whether it is instinct or reason that causes man to shrink from death, the same influence works to the same end in the ape; and the demeanour of this same ape towards his later companion, Elisheba, only confirmed the opinion.
[CHAPTER X]
AARON AND ELISHEBA
Four days after the death of Moses I secured a passage on a trading-boat that came into the lake. It was a small affair, intended for towing canoes, and not in any way prepared to carry passengers or cargo; but I found room in one of the canoes to set the cage I had provided for Aaron, stowed the rest of my effects wherever space permitted, and embarked for the coast.
Our progress was slow and the journey tedious, as the only passage out of the lake at that season was through a long, narrow, winding creek, beset by sand-bars, rocks, logs, and snags, and in some places overhung by low, bending trees. But the wild, weird scenery was grand and beautiful. Long lines of bamboo, broken here and there by groups of pendanus or stately palms; islands of lilies and long sweeps of papyrus, spreading away from the banks on either side; the gorgeous foliage of aquatic plants drooping along the margin like a massive fringe, and relieved by clumps of tall, waving grass, formed a perfect Eden for the birds and monkeys that dwell among those scenes of an eternal summer.
After a delay of eight days at Cape Lopez, we secured passage on a small French gunboat, called the Komo, by which we came to Gaboon, where I found another kulu-kamba in the hands of a generous friend, Mr. Adolph Strohm, who presented her to me; and I gave her to Aaron as a wife, and called her Elisheba, after the name of the wife of the great high-priest.
Elisheba was captured on the head-waters of the Mguni river, in about the same latitude that Aaron was found in, but more than a hundred miles to the east of that point and a few minutes north of it. I did not learn the history of her capture.
It would be difficult to find any two human beings more unlike in taste and temperament than these two apes were. Aaron was one of the most amiable of creatures; he was affectionate and faithful to those who treated him kindly; he was merry and playful by nature, and often evinced a marked sense of humour; he was fond of human society, and strongly averse to solitude or confinement.