Like the other Troglodytes, the Koolo-Kamba has great air sacs or throat pouches, which are hidden amongst the great muscles of the neck, and enter the organ of voice, or the larynx, between the upper and lower structures for the production of vocal sound. Their size and general nature may be satisfactorily compared with those of the Gorilla. (See [page 22].)
Having something of a voice, this Ape has a better-formed palate than the others, and its tongue has not such a jumble of papillæ or little needle points on it as they have, for the larger cup-shaped ones are arranged at the back in the shape of the letter Y. The last molar tooth of the lower jaw has five cusps.
A huge eater of vegetable food, it requires a large stomach, and this has the two openings very close together, that is to say, the one for the passage of food in, and the other for the passage of food out, into the small gut. There is, as in all vegetarians by nature, a large great intestine, enormous, in fact, and this ends, as in man, in a blind gut with an appendix. The cause of all this is that vegetable food does not contain much available nourishment, and large portions of it must come in contact with the mucous or absorbing membrane of the stomach and bowels, in order that a proper quantity of nutritious matter may be absorbed, and be made into blood. The contrary is the case in flesh-eating animals, whose food contains a high percentage of nourishment; for in them the stomach and intestines are small, the surface required not being great, and nature is wonderfully economical.
THE SOKO.
This animal, both as regards its name, description, and habits, we owe to Livingstone; and the stories which he heard of it from the natives, in the strange country to the west of the great lake Tanganyika, must have wiled away many a weary hour during his ill-health and gradual loss of energy.
The first notice of it is curious, and occurs in his “Last Journals.” They were in want of rain, and he writes:—“A Soko, alive, was believed to be a good charm for rain, so one was caught; and the captor had the ends of two fingers and toes bitten off. The Soko, or Gorilla, always tries to bite off these parts, and has been known to overpower a young man, and leave him without the ends of fingers and toes. I saw the nest of one; it was a poor contrivance—no more architectural skill shown than in the nest of our cushat dove.” Here the consideration of this creature might have ended, for Livingstone terms it a Gorilla, but this name, like that of Pongo, is evidently given to all great African Apes with bad characters, and moreover, as will be noticed presently, when one of the illustrious traveller’s native companions came to England, and was shown a stuffed Gorilla, he decided that it was not the same thing as the Soko.
In another part of his Journal Livingstone returns to the Soko, which he still calls the Gorilla; but in the drawings given it evidently is not one, and is neither as large in its body nor as ugly in the face; moreover, the large ears would cause it to be considered, were there not other reasons, as one of the true Chimpanzees, or Troglodytes niger.
The following extracts from Livingstone possess undoubted interest:—
“24th August.—Four Gorillas or Sokos were killed yesterday; an extensive grass-burning forced them out of their usual haunt, and coming on the plain they were speared. They often go erect, but place the hand on the head, as if to steady the body. When seen thus the Soko is an ungainly beast. The most sentimental young lady would not call him a ‘dear,’ but a bandy-legged, pot-bellied, low-looking villain, without a particle of the gentleman in him. Other animals, especially the Antelopes, are graceful, and it is pleasant to see them, either at rest or in motion; the natives also are well made, lithe and comely to behold; but the Soko, if large, would do well to stand for a picture of the devil. He takes away my appetite by his disgusting bestiality of appearance. His light yellow face shows off his ugly whiskers and faint apology for a beard; the forehead, villainously low, with high ears, is well in the background of the great dog-mouth; the teeth are slightly human, but the canines show the beast by their large development. The hands, or rather the fingers, are like those of the natives. The flesh of the feet is yellow; and the eagerness with which the Manyuema devour it, leaves the impression that eating Sokos was the first stage by which they arrived at being cannibals; they say the flesh is delicious. The Soko is represented by some to be extremely knowing, successfully stalking men and women while at their work; kidnapping children, and running up trees with them, he seems to be amused by the sight of the young native in his arms, but comes down when tempted by a bunch of bananas, and as he lifts that, drops the child; the young Soko, in such a case, would cling closely to the armpit of the elder. One man was cutting out honey from a tree, and naked, when a Soko suddenly appeared and caught him, then let him go; another man was hunting, and missed in his attempt to stab a Soko; it seized the spear, and broke it, then grappled with the man, who called to his companions, ‘Soko has caught me!’ The Soko bit off the ends of his fingers, and escaped unharmed. Both men are now alive at Bambarré.”