STRANGE STORIES OF MANY PEOPLES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7677, 9 April 1903, Page 4

STRANGE STORIES OF MANY PEOPLES.

No. I

CHIMPANZEES AND CANNIBALS.

(By SIR H. H. JOHNSTON, X.C.8., etc.) Author of "The Uganda Protectorate," Etc.

[All Rights Keserved.]

Between 1882 and 1888, I spent something like four years on the West Coust of Africa, between the Gambia -and the Camieroons. I doubt if any -period -of mv service in the African Continent was mom interesting to me. Amongst) the man;, curious people 1 met was a Dutchman, whom I wilL call Van Beuling-h, though that was not his name. I learn that Le is recently dead. ' .

j This curious creature was full of extraordinary stories, good and bad, told olteu in.. very picturesque English, with just a 1 trace of Dutch construction in his sentences, and 'besprinkled wij-h a. great variety of indigenous negro terms. His ostensible livelihood, 1 iuight remark, was that of a Natural Histoiy collector for various museums, and for one oi< two personages in the English world of science. He had some strange freemasonry, which took- him far and wide amongst all native tribes uninjured. It would liave been of the greatest interest, I now believe, to have taken down t-extually a selection of liis stories, some of which I ascertained to be absolutely true, while the others, if fictitious, were, at' any rate, of considerable interest. Her.c, as nearly as I can remember it, is one. of the stories Iwy toLd me, though I declins to vouch for its accuracy. Not to weary tbd reader, I have shortened it a good deal and have-put ifc into plain English without attempting to imitate Van Beulingh's picturesque but discursive and disjointed style. . The first night we spent in the forest after leaving- the banks of the river there were bands of. chimpanzees all round us, hooting and screaming. Apparently in one direction they had got hold of a hollow cylinder of wood — possibly the section of a" thick branch, or one of the natives' large wooden mortars for pounding food. They seemed to be slapping this natural -drum with their hands and hooting in chorus, the notes rising in the senk until they ended in deafening shrieks and a sound not unlike laughter. A chimpanzee foahy was whimpering and ■ crying, braying ab last in its passionate anger, ■as a child brays when madly anpry. I wa-s rather anxious to shoot one of these apes, lit up for the moment foy the Maze of our fire, and standing not more thsui twenty yards away ; but my men implored me. to do nothing of the kind, averring that the whole of the band would then assault our camp, and that, although we might kill two or three. or even four, we should b 8 eventually overpowered and torn to pieces.

CHASED BY CHIMPANZEES

On the third day of onr journey, n. -hnge chimpanzee plopped down from a branch that hung over,the path, and stood erect as if challenging tne advance of our caravan. This time I could not resist the opportunity, both of disposing of a possible aggressor and of getting a magnificent .specimen for the museums. So I took aim witli my single-barrelled .450, and shot him through the heart. He gave a fearful scream, as a man. might do before 'he fell. The scream did for us. A number of other chimpanzees, males and females, full-grown and half-grown — and some of them looked to me to be pretty nearly as large as gorillas — were suddenly visible, dropping to the ground from the lower branches. scrambling down trunks and making straight for their dead comrade and myself. I tell you I was panic-struck. I had not much ammunition with me on. my body, and without attempting to fire any more cartridges, for the onoment I turned right round and fled up along the path, meaning to make a stand with my men. who had plenty of ammunition. But my men at the sight of the chimpanzees had flung down their loads, and run into iho forest, fleeing for their lives, hiding themselves in the brushwood. Fortunately for m«, the greater part of the ohinipanzees went after them in pursuit. Two old fellows came for me, but I killed them. both. The path we, had followed was of the faintest. Indeed, on the second day we repeatedly lost it, and I more than suspect, to use a native phrase, it had " died " from want of use. We really seemed, at the time the chimpanzees came for us, to have been following ai; old elephant track. .After sitting for half an hour and seeing no more chimpanzees, I began to shout to my men to return. No. human being replied, but my shout unfortunately attracted the chimpanzees, either the same ones that had' attacked us before or a fresh lot. The forest resounded with their hoots. Suddenly they began to pour into the relatively clear space in which, l was sitting, and whera the bodies of the three dead ones lay. In a mad panic I rose and took to my heels, running desperately in the direction where the forest seemed clearest. Of course, when I was able tc- run pretty quickly the chimpanzees could not with their shambling gait on the ground keepup with me. Yet every now and then a fresh enemy would drop down from the trees and make for me. I dodged to the right and to the left, I hid myself for a space in a clump of huge plants, I was cruelly stung by ants, and nearly dead with heat, fatigue and want of breath. I scarcely dared to shout again. At last, feeling that I should meet with my -death by starvatioa, a-nd the abandonment of my porteTS, if I mad& no effort, I attempted to retrace my steps to the fatal spot where the chimpanzees lay dead. But the forest looked the same in all directions. There were no landmarks to guide me ; I had completely lost my way. My, only idea, then

was to look at the little compass attached to my. watch-chain, and attempt to wuLk composedly in a 'south-easterly direction, btiieving that to have been the general trtni of the path we were following, . ;u:d hoping that it might bring me to a village of the Babom people. Even if those were the fiej.'6c cannibals tihey were represented to be- they seemed brothers ' and friends compared to those awful apes. Niyht overtook me, however, and I had reached no sign of human habitation. I had been able to quencli my thirst, l>e«»me rilla of \ra-t-ef were commonly met. with in this magnificent but alarming forest. After nli. 1 was ho neophyte, in African exploration, ;md had several times before been lost in the wilderness. » l was therefore dctciminod noti to take too gloomy a view of the caso or to wear myself out. with- unnece-ssaxy fatigue. Accor-dinily, I su( doAvn on ii'rn* and moss by the fide of a little .stream, and prepared myself to pass the night. I had matobes with me, and a pipe and tobacco. The pipe put heart into me, and with one or two matches I managed to light a fire of sticks. i

A FACE IN THE DARKNESS

Tie blue s-moke curled up into the sombre darkness of tlie forest, and a cheery Jiitle rvi flamo produced at once mi at in os pi: ere of homo. I kept my fire within reasonable ■bounds, so as not to atiract'too mui-li notice from the chimpanzees. Utterly ixhau>U-d ai; 1 was from my fligHt through t!;e i'i>r**i, I fell asleep. Some hours later I uwokc. Thp: fire had burnt down to a heap of -.vhlte ashes, from which a dull red lieut glowedI put on more- sticks, and blew tho im- up •industriously 'until it burst into a, blight rlame. Then, with a shudder and a si ail, which wrung fiom . me . an involuntary shriek, I realised that a human fa«e was looking at me-, framed in leaves. At riiy exclamation tha face was withdrawn with a flight tuatling. I *at paralysed with terror— l hardly knew why. Presently n, spurt of flame" showed the face again peering 'through the leaves. The features were those of a negro woman, of rather degraded type, probably belonging to one of tho prognathous- forest tribe-;:,, bordering in their.- physique on the Pygmy. But the. eyes had a kindly expression. The woman was holding something in her arms. For some minutes we sat gazing' at each. ot.h«r speechlessly. Every now and the.n tho flames died down. At last, the woman made .some sound like human speech. I Ivijan »o realise that she might be my salvation, ,s» I motioned her to draw near. I spoke to her in a few words of Efik. This she did riot understand, yet th? language was evidently one slightly familiar h> her in pronunciation. She boldly stepped up to the fire, took more chip.'? and sticks, and replenished it, clutching the while, what .appeared" to be a young child.. She squatted) down on her hunkers on tie- opposite side of the fire to myself, cleared her throati several times, and then began to .-talk in a low, hurried voice. • Unfortunately, I, .could not understand a word of tlhe language she used. I said, "Do you know .any Efik?" She. repeated word Efik several .times, a3 though it -were familiar, and then 'in a fresh outburst of speech repeated over and over again the word Akwa or Akpa. I .guessed that she explained to me t ! hat< she knew something of the Akwa language which is spoken to the east of Old Calabar. Fortunately, I had in the side pocket of my coat a small notebook in which I bad written down a few wnrds of this language. By this maans and by the abundant, and explanatory gestures of which sic made uro I elicited from her what would, appear to be a most extraordinary story. I can only give it as I understood it at tho time, but will not vouch- for its being true. I can only tell you what I gleaned by this strango conversation and what I actually saw. The woman, I gathered, had been driven out of a . not far,, distant Babom village becausei she had given birth to twiDs. This, as

you knew, is considered to be a terrible disgrace amongst, th* no-grops of this part of Africa. Traces of this superstition still remain at Old Calabar. Nob only are tiho twins invariably killed, but the- mother is often killed also, or at any rate is made- " fetish " and driven i:ito the forest. Either this woman's life had b<=en attempted, or at any rate it had been threatened, and she had fled into tha forest. There she buiift/ a little hut, and sustained herself by feeding on the wild fruits, tke excellent fungi, and certain roots; while occasionally, when hard pressed for other food, she stealthily asproached village at night and robbed tha banana, plantation?. On one occasion she narrowly escaped being caught and killed.

AN EXTRAORDINARY OTORY.

One day the found her little u&elter in the forest'surrounned by a numb**/ of chim"panzees. They squatted- round her, and hooted, screamed and chattered. Then a large male chimpanzee laid hold of her, not unkindly. This ac-t provoked some of the females' to attempt to fling themselves on the unfortunate woman with teeth and nails ; but the old man chimpanzee turned on them one after the other with extraordinary fierceness and drove them off. She had heard the extraordinary clamour of the chimpanzees, had seen the dead ones, and "in the night bad smelt the smoke 1 of niy wood fire. Finding her way to the place where I lay askep, she sat down, hoping to see by daylight what creature it was that lit the- fire. ' When I stirred the embers and revived the flurr.es she had seen that it wa? no negro that had done this. The existence of white nvn some days' journey to the- west and- eoutii was known to her, and 1 she concluded that I mu*t be one of those wonderful beings, and in all probability beneficent.

Then my fire died down again, and in spit© of my interest and curiosity my weariness caused me to sleep a few more hours until morning. The >voman was still fitting there, evidently watching over me. That ivnman payed my life in all probability. . Sli-e k-d me by devious ways through the r - forest until a-t'last I saw a welcome burst of open sky, and the glistening grctn of banana plantations. Then 1 jjathored 1 from her gestures that I was to find the rest of my way into the village mysolf. I tried 10 explain my thanks- to her, but she had turned and 1 fled bark into the iorest. Knowing' how the suspicion of sava.ge« is amused by anything like ii sU-althy ttjipiDiiih Jo' their abodes, I set up a great shout. Presently men came running out o: t-ho plantations' gazing in all direction?. I shouted again. They advanced towards me somewhat threateningly, but I showed by nsy gestures that I had an unloaded' gun, and was peaceably inclined. There was a short consultation, and then an elder advanced towards me holding out his hands. 1 met him. halt-way, and shook hands with extreme cordiality. Thenceforward my difficulties 'came to an end, and what had seemed) likely to end in an appalling tragedy became ultimately a most successful expedition. The Babom people turned out in force and ransacked the forest, the loads which were deserted by v.ij porters were picked up, and what was more we also secured two of the bodies of the immense chimpanzees I had killed. From the appearance of the ground it looked as though rii* third had been dragged away by the other apes. I rested for several day's in. the Unborn village. Meantime these savage but friendly-, people were ranging the woods in large bands (for protection against the chimp;; nwes), raising thouts that might be heard by my porters. My throe Accra servants were discovered in a very exhausted condition, having sustained themselves by gathering fungi and Amnmum fruits. Most of my canoe-men were also found. As to the thirty porters, they had evidently run ail the' way back to their .homes on the Cross River, where they naturally spread abroad the rumour (about the fiftieth that has occurred) that I was dead — torn to pieces by infuriated chim-

pansKe>s