Beasts Royal by Patrick O'Brian

Author:Patrick O'Brian [Patrick O’Brian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2015-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

GORILLA

VII

Gorilla

Four great apes sat in a tree at noon. They were gorillas, one huge male, his wife, and two small ones. A fifth gorilla, the smallest, was scratching up roots on the ground.

From where he sat, high up on a sort of flat nest or platform of branches and twigs, the big gorilla smelt man. He gave a grunt, and his son on the ground swung up into the tree.

The fierce glare of the noonday sun scarcely penetrated the dense tropical foliage of the forest, and a steamy twilight prevailed except in the occasional clearings.

The largest of the apes had encountered men before, and he had killed two quite easily, but he did not understand them, and so he feared them in a dim, resentful way.

The scent grew weaker, and died away, but none of the gorillas left the trees until well into the afternoon. When they were in the trees they were at home; they swung from branch to branch by their great arms as lightly as gibbons. On the ground they felt lost and out of place. They walked awkwardly on their stumpy bow legs, keeping almost erect by leaning their knuckles on the ground. They shuffled uncomfortably, using their long arms as stilts, when they tried to walk upright; they went faster on all fours.

When it rained, as it often did, they were very miserable if they were on the ground, because they slipped, and stepped in puddles and mud, which they detested, being cleanly creatures. So they always went up to their nest to shelter from the warm downpour, and sometimes they had to sit there for hours, watching the rain. The father had sometimes tried to make a roof to keep the rain from dripping on to him, but he had never quite succeeded.

Sometimes when they were feeding far from their usual haunts they would meet other gorillas, but they avoided them as a rule. Once when they had encountered a solitary, morose old gorilla, he had attacked one of the younger ones, and the big male had gone to his rescue. The two gorillas had faced one another on the ground, half erect, roaring and beating their huge chests. The younger ape had slipped back to his mother.

On that day the two males had contented themselves with roaring, and had not fought, but about a month later the old gorilla had passed under a tree in which his former adversary was hiding. Before he had had time to know what was happening, a great weight had struck him in the back, and fierce teeth had met through his neck, and he was dead. His enemy had remembered, and had hidden on purpose.

The gorillas could talk, although their words were few and difficult to distinguish from grunts. In their guttural, throaty speech the big male was called Urrgh.

Once Urrgh had had three wives, but two had been speared to death when the gorillas had been raiding the sugar canes near a native village. On that occasion Urrgh had killed two men by tearing them to pieces with his hands.

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