Description
By Paul du Chaillu. The third classic study of African wildlife, culture, and native tribes as they existed in the mid-1800s, written by the first European explorer to confirm the existence of gorillas and African pygmies.
Following on from his Stories of the Gorilla Country and Wild Life Under the Equator, adventurer Paul du Chaillu describes in vivid detail African life before the advent of European colonization, and the astonishing practices, culture, and environment which existed at this time.
This work is particularly valuable as it shows, without prejudice or favor, Africa as it was, as seen by one of the first European explorers to set foot inside the interior of the Dark Continent. Read of witchcraft trials, and the tribe members’ astonishment at their first sight of a white man, their amazement at everyday items such as clothes, shoes, socks, hats, a music-box, and a mirror, and of how the Apingi tribe appointed him as king. This is truly a story of how a white man went where no European had ever gone before.
This book is another eye-opening account of Africa in its natural state, and contains many sobering lessons applicable to the present-day—if the reader has the vision to see and understand their meaning.
This is a hand-restored and re-set edition, complete with original illustrations.
Contents:
Chapter I: Paul’s Letter to His Young Friends, in Which He Prepares Them for Being “Lost in the Jungle.”
Chapter II: A Queer Canoe.—On the Rembo.—We Reach the Niembouai.—A Deserted Village.—Gazelle Attacked By a Snake.—Etia Wounded by a Gorilla.
Chapter III: Harpooning a Manga.—A Great Prize.—Our Canoe Capsized.—Description of the Manga.—Return to Camp.
Chapter IV We Go into the Forest.—Hunt for Ebony-Trees.—The Fish-Eagles.—Capture of a Young Eagle.—Impending Fight with Them.—Fearful Roars of Gorillas.—Gorillas Breaking Down Trees.
Chapter V: Lost.—Querlaouen Says We Are Bewitched.—Monkeys and Parrots.—A Deserted Village.—Strange Scene Before an Idol.—Bringing in the Wounded.—An Invocation.
Chapter VI: A White Gorilla.—Meeting Two Gorillas.—The Female Runs Away.—The Man Gorilla Shows Fight.—He Is Killed.—His Immense Hands and Feet.—Strange Story of a Leopard and a Turtle.
Chapter VII: Return to the Ovenga River.—The Monkeys and Their Friends the Birds.—They Live Together.—Watch by Moonlight for Game.—Kill an Oshengui.
Chapter VIII: We Are in a Canoe.—Outfit for Hunting.—See a Beautiful Antelope.—Kill It.—It Is a New Species.—River and Forest Swallows.
Chapter IX: We Hear The Cry of a Young Gorilla.—Start to Capture Him.—Fight with “His Father”.—We Kill Him.—Kill the Mother.—Capture the Baby.—Strange Camp Scene.
Chapter X: Jack Will Have His Own Way.—He Seized My Leg.—He Tears My Pantaloons.—He Growls at Me.—He Refuses Cooked Food.—Jack Makes His Bed.—Jack Sleeps with One Eye Open.—Jack Is Intractable.
Chapter XI: Start after Land-Crabs.—Village of the Crabs.—Each Crab Knows His House.—Great Flight of Crabs.—They Bit Hard.—Feast on the Slain.—A Herd of Hippopotami.
Chapter XII: Strange Spiders.—The House-Spider.—How They Capture Their Prey.—How They Fight.—Fight Between a Wasp And a Spider.—The Spider Has Its Legs Cut Off, and Is Carried Away.—Burrow Spider Watching for Its Prey.
Chapter XIII: We Continue Our Wanderings.—Joined by Etia.—We Starve.—Gambo and Etia Go in Search of Berries.—A Herd of Elephants.—The Rogue Elephant Charges Me.—He Is Killed.—He Tumbles Down Near Me.—Story of Redjioua.
Chapter XIV: A Formidable Bird.—The People Are Afraid of It.—A Baby Carried Off by the Guanionien.—A Monkey Also Seized.—I Discover a Guanionien Nest.—I Watch for the Eagles.
Chapter XV: The Cascade of Niama-Biembai.—A Native Camp.—Starting for the Hunt.—A Man Attacked by a Gorilla.—His Gun Broken.—The Man Dies.—His Burial.
Chapter XVI: Funeral of the Gorilla’s Victim.—A Man’s Head for the Alumbi.—The Snake and the Guinea-Fowl.—Snake Killed.—Visit to the House of the Alumbi.—Determine to Visit the Seacoast.
Chapter XVII: At Washington Once More.—Delights of the Seashore.—I Have Been Made a Makaga.—Friends Object to my Return into the Jungle.—Quengueza Taken Sick.—Gives a Letter to His Nephew.—Taking Leave.
Chapter XVIII: Departure.—Arrival at Goumbi.—The People Ask for the King.—A Death Panic in Goumbi.—A Doctor Sent For.—Death to the Aniembas.—Three Women Accused.—They Are Tried and Killed.
Chapter XIX: Quengueza Orders Ilogo to be Consulted about His Illness.—What the People Think of Ilogo.—A Nocturnal Séance.—A Female Medium.—What Ilogo Said.
Chapter XX: Departure from Goumbi.—Querlaouen’s Village.—Find It Deserted.—Querlaouen Dead.—He Has Been Killed by an Elephant.—Arrive at Obindji’s Town.—Meeting with Querlaouen’s Widow.—Neither Malaouen Nor Gambo at Home.
Chapter XXI: Leave for Ashira Land.—In a Swamp.—Cross the Mountains.—A Leopard after Us.—Reach the Ashira Country.
Chapter XXII: Great Mountains.—Ashira Land Is Beautiful.—The People Are Afraid.—Reach Akoonga’s Village.—King Olenda Sends Messengers and Presents.—I Reach Olenda’s Village.
Chapter XXIII: King Olenda Comes to Receive Me.—He Is Very Old.—Never Saw a Man So Old Before.—He Beats His Kendo.—He Salutes Me with His Kombo.—Kings Alone Can Wear the Kendo.
Chapter XXIV: They All Come to See Me.—They Say I Have an Evil Eye.—Ashira Villages.—Olenda Gives a Great Ball in My Honor.—Beer-Houses.—Goats Coming out of a Mountain Alive.
Chapter XXV: Ascension of the Ofoubou-Orèrè and Andelè Mountains.—The Ashira Bleed Their Hands.—Story of a Fight Between a Gorilla and a Leopard.—The Gorilla and the Elephant.—Wild Boars.
Chapter XXVI: Propose Start for Haunted Mountains.—Olenda Says It Cannot Be Done.—At Last I Leave Olenda Village.—A Tornado.—We Are Lost.—We Fight a Gorilla.—We Kill a Leopard.—Return to Olenda.
Chapter XXVII: Departure for the Apingi Country.—The Ovigue River.—Dangerous Bridge to Cross.—How The Bridge Was Built.—Glad to Escape Drowning.—On the Way.—Reach the Oloumy.
Chapter XXVIII: A Gorilla.—How He Attacked Me.—I Kill Him.—Minsho Tells a Story of Two Gorillas Fighting.—We Meet King Remandiji.—I Fall into an Elephant-Pit.—Reach Apingi Land.
Chapter XXIX: First Day in Apingi Land.—I Fire a Gun.—The Natives Are Frightened.—I Give the King a Waistcoat.—He Wears It.—The Sapadi People.—The Music-Box.—I Must Make a Mountain of Beads.
Chapter XXX: A Large Fleet of Canoes.—We Ascend the River.—The King Paddles My Canoes.—Agobi’s Village.—We Upset.—The King Is Furious.—Okabi, the Charmer.—I Read the Bible.—The People Are Afraid.
Chapter XXXI: A Great Crowd of Strangers.—I Am Made a King.—I Remain in My Kingdom.—Good-By to the Young Folks.
About the author: Paul du Chaillu (1831–1903) was the son of a French trader who was stationed on the West African cost. In 1855 he was sent by the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia to explore Africa because of his knowledge of the local languages and customs. In two expeditions into the interior, he observed numerous gorillas, brought back dead specimens, and also confirmed the existence of African pygmies, becoming the first European to observe them in real life. Du Chaillu sold his hunted gorillas to the Natural History Museum in London and his cannibal skulls to other European collections. Later he specialized in the prehistory of Scandinavia, and died while doing research in St Petersburg, Russia.
199 pages. Paperback.