The
elderly male (for anthropoids, like anthropoi, wax fierce and
surly with increasing years) will fight, but only from fear, when
suddenly startled, or with rage when slightly wounded. Moreover,
there must be rogue-gorillas, like rogue-elephants, lions,
hippopotami, rhinoceros, and even stags, vieux grognards, who,
expelled house and home, and debarred by the promising young
scions from the softening influence of feminine society, become,
in their enforced widowerhood, the crustiest of old bachelors. At
certain seasons they may charge in defence of the wife and
family, but the practice is exceptional. Mr. Wilson saw a man who
had lost the calf of his leg in an encounter, and one Etia, a
huntsman whose left hand had been severely crippled, informed Mr.
W. Winwood Reade, that "the gorilla seized his wrist with his
hind foot, and dragged his hand into his mouth, as he would have
done a bunch of plantains." No one, however, could give me an
authentic instance of manslaughter by our big brother.
The modifications with which we must read the picturesque pages
of the "Gorilla Book" are chiefly the following.
Pages:
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