that Mistress and Master Gorilla had passed the night,
Paterfamilias keeping watch below. A little beyond we were shown
a spot where two males had been fighting a duel, or where a
couple had been indulging in dalliance sweet; the prints were 8
inches long and 6 across the huge round toes; whilst the hinder
hand appeared almost bifurcate, the thumb forming nearly a half.
This is explained in the "Gorilla Book" (chap, xx.): "Only the
ball of the foot, and that thumb which answers to our great toe,
seem to touch the ground."

Presently we came upon the five bushmen who had been appointed to
meet us. They were a queer-looking lot, with wild, unsteady eyes,
receding brows, horizontal noses, and projecting muzzles; the
cranium and the features seemed disposed nearly at a right angle,
giving them a peculiar baboon-like semblance. Each had his water-
gourd and his flint-gun, the lock protected by a cover of
monkey's skin or wild cow's hide, whilst gibecieres and
ammunition-bags of grass-cloth hung from their shoulders. There
were also two boys with native axes, small iron triangles, whose
points passed through knob-sticks; these were to fell the trees
in which our game might take refuge, and possibly they might have
done so in a week. A few minutes with this party convinced me
that I was wilfully wasting time; they would not separate, and
they talked so loud that game would be startled a mile off. I
proposed that they should station me in a likely place, form a
circle, and drive up what was in it--they were far above acting
beaters after that fashion. So we dismissed them and dispersed
about the bush. My factotum shot a fine Mboko (Siurus
eborivorus), 2 ft. 2 in. total length: the people declare that
this squirrel gnaws ivory, whence its name. I had heard of it in