Gorillas & ChimpanzeesGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
Gorillas & Chimpanzees
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Chimpanzees; Gabon -- Description and travel; Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch), 1848-1920 -- Travel; Gorilla
On board the steamer that we sailed in for home, there was a young
elephant that was sent by a trader for sale. He was kept in a strong
stall, built on deck for his quarters. There were wide cracks between
the boards, and the elephant had the habit of reaching his trunk
through them in search of anything he might find. With his long,
flexible proboscis extended from the side of the stall, he would twist
and coil it in all manner of writhing forms. This was the crowning
terror of the lives of those two apes: it was the bogie-man of their
existence, and nothing could induce either of them to go near it. If
they saw me go about it, they would scream and yell until I came away.
If Aaron could get hold of me without getting too near it, he would
cling to me until he would almost tear my clothes to keep me away from
it. It was the one thing that Elisheba was afraid of, and the only one
against which she ever gave me warning.
They did not manifest the same concern for others, but sat watching
them without offering any protest. Even the stowaway who fed them
and attended to their cage was permitted to approach it, but their
solicitude for me was remarked by every man on board.
I was never able to tell what their opinion was of the thing. They were
much less afraid of the elephant when they could see all of him, than
they were of the trunk when they saw that alone. They may have thought
the latter to be a big snake, but such is only conjecture.
At the beginning of the voyage I took six panels of my own cage and
made a small cage for them. I taught them to drink water from a
beer-bottle with a long neck that could be put through a mesh of the
wires. They preferred this mode of drinking, and appeared to look upon
it as an advanced idea. Elisheba always insisted on being served first,
and being a female her wish was complied with. When she had finished,
Aaron would climb up by the wires and take his turn. There is a certain
sound or word which the chimpanzee always uses to express "good" or
"satisfaction," and he made frequent use of it. He would drink a few
swallows of the water and then utter the sound, whereupon Elisheba
would climb up again and taste it. She seemed to think it was something
better than she was drinking, but finding it the same as she had had,
she would again give way for him. Every time he would use the sound she
would take another taste and turn away, but she never failed to try it
if he uttered the sound.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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