The third day after my cage was complete, a family of ten gorillas crossed the rear of the open grounds belonging to the mission, and not more than two hundred yards from the house. A small native boy was within some twenty yards of them when they crossed the path in front of him. Within a few minutes I was notified of the fact, and took my rifle and followed them into the bush until I lost their trail. A few hours later they were seen again by some natives, not far away from my cage, but they did not call on me. The next day, however, 367 I had a visit from a group who came within some thirty yards of the cage. The bush was so dense that I could not see them, but I could easily distinguish four or five voices, which seemed to be engaged in a family broil of some kind. I suppose that they were the same family that had been seen the day before.
Père Buleon, le père supérieur of Ste. Anne, tells me that he has twice seen a family of gorillas feeding in a plantain grove, and that, on both occasions, the father gorilla sat quietly eating the fruit which the others gathered and brought to him. I have learned from other reliable sources that gorillas are often seen in groups or families of twelve or fifteen, and always have one which seems to be chief among them, and this one the natives call ekombo n’jina, which means gorilla king.
It is the current belief that these groups consist of one adult male, and a number of females and their young. The gorilla is evidently polygamous, but when he once adopts a wife she remains so for years, and a certain degree of marital fidelity is observed. The same practice prevails with the natives, with one exception in favor of the gorilla, and that is that I have never heard of one selling one of his wives, which the natives frequently do.
As far as it can be said that the gorilla has any form of government, it is strictly patriarchal, and there are reasons to justify the belief that they have some fixed ideas of order and justice. Many of the natives declare that they have seen the gorillas holding a palaver, at which the king always presided, while the others stood or sat in a semicircle, talking in an excited manner. They do not claim to have interpreted what was said or understood the nature of the quarrel, but, as a rule, all natives believe that the gorilla has a language which is understood among themselves, and used in the same manner as man uses his speech.
To my mind it is quite evident that the habit of the gorilla is to go in groups, although it is a very common thing to see one quite alone, or to see a single pair of them. I think, as a rule, when you see one alone it is a young male who has set out in the world for himself, and the pair is perhaps a bridal couple.
The next visit I received was by a fine young chimpanzee, who came to an opening in the bush, where he stopped and took quite a look at the situation. He betrayed no sign of alarm, and seemed half-way tempted to come nearer, but after a halt of nearly a minute he resumed his march with an air of great leisure, nor did he deign to turn his head to see if I followed him.
On the day after this a young gorilla came within six or seven yards of my cage and took a good peep at me. He stood for a few seconds, holding on to a bush with one hand; his lips were relaxed and his mouth half open, as if surprised and perplexed at what he beheld. His countenance did not portray either fear or anger, but utter amazement. I heard him creeping through the bush before I saw him, and I don’t think he was aware of my presence until he was so near. During this short visit I sat as still as a statue, and I think he was in doubt as to whether I was alive or not; but when he turned away into the bush he lost no time in getting out of reach. He uttered no sound except a suppressed umph!
A day or two later I heard a couple among the plantains, but could only get the faintest glimpse of them. They were talking but little, and I don’t think they broke any of the stalks. As well as I could determine, there were only two, but they were of good size and alike in color.
At this moment I hear one tearing a plantain stalk within about thirty yards of me. I can only hear one voice, but as they do not talk much when alone, I presume there are more of them not far away. He is uttering a low murmuring sound which seems to express pleasure, but I am not yet able to translate it into English. Time and patience, however, will accomplish that, and much more.
It is a fact worthy of notice that some of the sounds uttered by the gorilla and chimpanzee are identical with 368 certain sounds in the native language, and it is quite as easy to find letters to represent them. One word in N’Ka̤mi, meaning yes or assent, is exactly the same as one sound that is much used by the chimpanzee, but is not within the scope of any known system of phonetic symbols. The same is true of the word for five in one dialect of Kroo speech.