Chapter I: Preface

The present work is the natural product of some years devoted to a study of the speech and habits of monkeys. It has led up to the special study of the great apes. The matter contained herein is chiefly a record of the facts tabulated during recent years in that field of research.

The aim in view is to convey to the casual reader a more correct idea than now prevails concerning the physical, mental, and social habits of these apes.

The favourable conditions under which the writer has been placed, in the study of these animals in the freedom of their native jungle, have not hitherto been enjoyed by any other student of Nature.

A careful aim to avoid all technical terms and scientific phraseology has been adhered to, and the subject treated in a simple style. Tedious details are relieved by an ample supply of anecdotes taken from the writer's own observations, and most of them are the acts of his own pets or of apes in a wild state. The author has refrained from rash deductions and abstruse theories, but has sought to place the animals here treated in their true light, believing that to dignify the apes is not to degrade man, but to exalt him even more.

It is hoped that a more perfect knowledge of these animals may bring man into closer fellowship and deeper sympathy with Nature, and cause him to realise that all creatures think and feel in some degree, however small.

THE AUTHOR.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE
PREFACE vii
I. MAN AND APE COMPARED 1
II. CAGED IN AN AFRICAN JUNGLE 14
III. DAILY LIFE AND SCENES IN THE JUNGLE 22
IV. THE CHIMPANZEE 36
V. PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, AND MENTAL QUALITIES 46
VI. THE SPEECH OF CHIMPANZEES 66
VII. THE CAPTURE AND CHARACTER OF MOSES 76
VIII. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MOSES 92
IX. AARON 102
X. AARON AND ELISHEBA 116
XI. THE DEATH OF AARON AND ELISHEBA 136
XII. OTHER CHIMPANZEES 144
XIII. OTHER KULU-KAMBAS 176
XIV. GORILLAS 188
XV. HABITS OF THE GORILLA 213
XVI. OTHELLO AND OTHER GORILLAS 234
XVII. OTHER APES 252
XVIII. THE TREATMENT OF APES IN CAPTIVITY 262

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

_Page_
_Portrait of R. L. Garner_ _Frontispiece_
_Waiting and Watching in the Cage_ _To face_ 16
_Starting for a Stroll_ " 22
_Preparing for the Night_ " 30
_In the Jungle_ " 42
_A Stroll in the Jungle_ " 54
_The Edge of the Jungle_ " 62
_Trading Station in the Interior_ " 102
_Plain and Edge of the Forest_ " 108
_A Native Canoe_ " 118
_Aaron and Elisheba_ " 132
_Native Village at Moile--Interior of Nyanza_ " 146
_Consul II. Riding a Tricycle_ " 164
_Consul II. In Full Dress_ " 170
_Native Village at Glass Gaboon_ " 180
_Natives Skinning a Gorilla_ " 190
_Skulls of Gorillas--Front and Side Views_ 199-202
_Young Gorilla Walking_ _To face_ 208
_Native Carrier Boy_ " 222
_Native Women of the Interior_ " 230

GORILLAS AND CHIMPANZEES