We at once disembowelled the animal, which was a full-grown male. We found in his stomach nothing but berries, nuts, and fruits. He had no doubt just begun to take his breakfast.
This kooloo-kamba was four feet three inches high.
He was powerfully built, with strong and square shoulders. He had a very round head, with whiskers running quite round the face and below the chin. The face was round; the cheek-bones prominent; the cheeks sunken. The roundness of the head and the prominence of the cheek-bones were so great as to remind me of some of the heads of Indians or Chinamen. The hair was black and long on the arms, which, however, were partly bare. His ears were large, and shaped like those of a human being. Of its habits the people could tell me nothing, except that it was found more frequently in the far interior. I brought the skin of this kooloo-kamba to New York, and some years ago many people saw it.
On our return to Obindji we were overtaken by my good friend Querlaouen, who had shot a wild pig, of which the good fellow gave me half. The negroes feasted on the kooloo meat, which I could not touch. So the pig was welcome to me, as indeed it was to Quengueza, whom we found almost crying with an affection which is common in this part of Africa, and is called _gouamba_, but for which we happily have no name. Gouamba is the inordinate longing and craving of exhausted nature for meat. For days, and sometimes for weeks, a man does not get any meat at all, and whenever other food is brought before him, you will hear him say, looking at the food with disgust, "Gouamba," which means literally, "I am sick of food; I have a craving for meat; I care for nothing else."
I had some glorious gorilla-hunting while in the Bakalai country, in the upper regions of the Ovenga river. Malaouen, Querlaouen, Gambo, and I, often started out together, and remained for days in the thickest part of the forest. Now and then we would return to Obindji to get a supply of plantain, and then would go off again. We roamed over the forest in all directions; we explored some new regions; and sometimes we got lost in the midst of impenetrable mountains, where often for days we killed nothing.
In these excursions we suffered sometimes a good deal; for we had to endure many hardships. We often had very poor fare, and fever sometimes prostrated me.