Habits of the Gorilla--Social Traits--Government--Justice--Mode of Attack--Screaming and Beating--Food Studying the habits of the gorilla in a wild state is attended with much difficulty, but the results obtained during my sojourn of nearly four months among them in the forest are an ample reward for the efforts made. In captivity the habits of animals are made to conform in a measure to their surroundings, and since those are different from their natural environment, many of their habits differ in a like degree from the normal. Some are foregone, others modified, and new ones are acquired. Therefore, it is difficult to know exactly what the animal was in a state of nature. In the social life of the gorilla there are certain things in which he differs from the chimpanzee, but there are others in which they closely resemble each other. From the native accounts of the modes of life of these two apes there would appear to be a much greater difference than a systematic study of them reveals. The native version of things frequently has a germ of truth which may serve as a clue to the facts in the case; and while we cannot safely rely upon all the details of the tales they relate, we forgive their mendacity and make use of the suggestions they furnish. The gorilla is polygamous in habit, and he has an incipient idea of government. Within certain limits he has a faint perception of order and justice, if not of right and wrong. I do not mean to ascribe to him the highest attributes of man or to exalt him above the plane to which his faculties justly assign him; but there are reasons to justify the belief that he occupies a higher social and mental sphere than other animals, except the chimpanzee. In the beginning of his career of independent life the young gorilla selects a wife with whom thereafter he appears to sustain the conjugal relation, and he maintains a certain degree of marital fidelity. From time to time he adopts a new wife, but does not discard the old one. In this manner he gathers around him a numerous family, consisting of his wives and children. Each mother nurses and cares for her own young, but all of them grow up together as the children of one family. The mother sometimes corrects and sometimes chastises her young. This presupposes some idea of propriety. The father exercises the function of patriarch in the sense of a ruler, and the natives call him _ikomba njina_, which means “gorilla chief.” This term is derived from the third person singular of the verb _kamba_, “to speak”--_i kamba_, “he speaks.” Hence “spokesman,” or one that speaks for others. To him all the others show a certain amount of deference. Whether this is due to fear or respect is not certain; but here is at least the first principle of dignity.