They asked me if I thought mortal man would ever
attempt to face such a thing as that? With respect to drumming
with both forehands upon the chest, some asserted that such is
the brute's practice when calling Mrs. Gorilla, or during the
excitement of a scuffle; but the accounts of the bushmen differ
greatly on this point. In a hand-to-hand struggle it puts forth
one of the giant feet, sometimes the hinder, as "Joe Gorilla" was
wont to do; and, having once got a hold with its prehensile toes,
it bites and worries like any other ape, baboon, or monkey. From
this grapple doubtless arose the old native legend about the
gorilla drawing travellers up trees and "quietly choking them."
It can have little vitality, as it is easily killed with a bit of
stone propelled out of a trade musket by the vilest gunpowder,
and the timid bushmen, when failing to shoot it unawares, do not
fear to attack it openly. As a rule, the larger the Simiad, the
less sprightly it becomes; and those most approaching man are
usually the tamest and the most melancholy--perhaps, their
spirits are permanently affected by their narrow escape.
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