The Gorillas Let Go All, Raised Themselves Up For A Second,
Gave A Quaint Sound Between A Bark And A Howl, And Then The Ladies
And The Young Gentleman Started Home.
The old male rose to his full
height (it struck me at the time this was a matter of ten feet at
least, but for scientific purposes allowance must be made for a
lady's emotions) and looked straight towards us, or rather towards
where that sound came from.
Wiki went off into a paroxysm of
falsetto sneezes the like of which I have never heard; nor evidently
had the gorilla, who doubtless thinking, as one of his black co-
relatives would have thought, that the phenomenon favoured Duppy,
went off after his family with a celerity that was amazing the
moment he touched the forest, and disappeared as they had, swinging
himself along through it from bough to bough, in a way that
convinced me that, given the necessity of getting about in tropical
forests, man has made a mistake in getting his arms shortened. I
have seen many wild animals in their native wilds, but never have I
seen anything to equal gorillas going through bush; it is a
graceful, powerful, superbly perfect hand-trapeze performance. {208}
After this sporting adventure, we returned, as I usually return from
a sporting adventure, without measurements or the body.
Our first day's march, though the longest, was the easiest, though,
providentially I did not know this at the time. From my Woermann
road walks I judge it was well twenty-five miles. It was easiest
however, from its lying for the greater part of the way through the
gloomy type of forest. All day long we never saw the sky once.
The earlier part of the day we were steadily going up hill, here and
there making a small descent, and then up again, until we came on to
what was apparently a long ridge, for on either side of us we could
look down into deep, dark, ravine-like valleys. Twice or thrice we
descended into these to cross them, finding at their bottom a small
or large swamp with a river running through its midst. Those rivers
all went to Lake Ayzingo.
We had to hurry because Kiva, who was the only one among us who had
been to Efoua, said that unless we did we should not reach Efoua
that night. I said, "Why not stay for bush?" not having contracted
any love for a night in a Fan town by the experience of M'fetta;
moreover the Fans were not sure that after all the whole party of us
might not spend the evening at Efoua, when we did get there,
simmering in its cooking-pots.
Ngouta, I may remark, had no doubt on the subject at all, and
regretted having left Mrs. N. keenly, and the Andande store
sincerely. But these Fans are a fine sporting tribe, and allowed
they would risk it; besides, they were almost certain they had
friends at Efoua; and, in addition, they showed me trees scratched
in a way that was magnification of the condition of my own cat's pet
table leg at home, demonstrating leopards in the vicinity. I kept
going, as it was my only chance, because I found I stiffened if I
sat down, and they always carefully told me the direction to go in
when they sat down; with their superior pace they soon caught me up,
and then passed me, leaving me and Ngouta and sometimes Singlet and
Pagan behind, we, in our turn, overtaking them, with this difference
that they were sitting down when we did so.
About five o'clock I was off ahead and noticed a path which I had
been told I should meet with, and, when met with, I must follow.
The path was slightly indistinct, but by keeping my eye on it I
could see it. Presently I came to a place where it went out, but
appeared again on the other side of a clump of underbush fairly
distinctly. I made a short cut for it and the next news was I was
in a heap, on a lot of spikes, some fifteen feet or so below ground
level, at the bottom of a bag-shaped game pit.
It is at these times you realise the blessing of a good thick skirt.
Had I paid heed to the advice of many people in England, who ought
to have known better, and did not do it themselves, and adopted
masculine garments, I should have been spiked to the bone, and done
for. Whereas, save for a good many bruises, here I was with the
fulness of my skirt tucked under me, sitting on nine ebony spikes
some twelve inches long, in comparative comfort, howling lustily to
be hauled out. The Duke came along first, and looked down at me. I
said, "Get a bush-rope, and haul me out." He grunted and sat down
on a log. The Passenger came next, and he looked down. "You kill?"
says he. "Not much," say I; "get a bush-rope and haul me out." "No
fit," says he, and sat down on the log. Presently, however, Kiva
and Wiki came up, and Wiki went and selected the one and only bush-
rope suitable to haul an English lady, of my exact complexion, age,
and size, out of that one particular pit. They seemed rare round
there from the time he took; and I was just casting about in my mind
as to what method would be best to employ in getting up the smooth,
yellow, sandy-clay, incurved walls, when he arrived with it, and I
was out in a twinkling, and very much ashamed of myself, until
Silence, who was then leading, disappeared through the path before
us with a despairing yell. Each man then pulled the skin cover off
his gun lock, carefully looked to see if things there were all right
and ready loosened his knife in its snake-skin sheath; and then we
set about hauling poor Silence out, binding him up where necessary
with cool green leaves; for he, not having a skirt, had got a good
deal frayed at the edges on those spikes.
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