e no brandy, no whisky, no wine, not even
small beer, to inflame our blood. We sleep, too, among the trees, clear
off the ground, where there are dangerous vapours, so that we are free
from all miasmata. West Africa is my lovely home, and I am big and
beautifully pot-bellied. It is the home of the large-eared chimpanzee, a
near relative of ours, though we never marry. He is an active fellow,
with rather large vulgar-looking ears; while mine, though I ought not to
say so, are beautifully small, and denote my more exalted birth. Master
Chimpanzee needs all his ears, for he is not so strong as I, and as you
will hear, we anthropoids have enemies in our trees, just as you perhaps
have, Master Redhair. We are both cautious of getting on the ground, and
when there, I assure you I keep a sharp look-out.

"I have told you of one adventure I had in my youth, and now listen to
another which I have not forgotten to this day. My left arm aches now as
I think of it.

"As I was one day gambolling with another playfellow in a large tree,
with great branches standing out from the trunk, and at a good height
from the ground, my companion, another young gorilla, but with smaller
mouth, larger nose, and other features uglier than mine, suddenly
shrieked, and looked frightened and angry. No sooner had I noticed him
than my whole frame was shaken. I was seized by two paws in the small of
my back--a very painful part to be dug into--by ten hooked claws, nearly
as long as tenpenny nails, but horribly sharp and hooked.--Oh my arm!

"I tried to turn round, and there was a most ferocious leopard growling
at me. I tried to bite, and to scratch his eyes out, but the pain in the
small of my back made me quite giddy. The spotted scoundrel seized my
left arm--how it aches!--and gave me a _crunch_ or two. I hear, I feel
the teeth against my bones as I write. My whole body is full of pain.

"My mother came and released me. She was large, handsome, and
well-to-do, with _such_ long and strong arms, and with a magnificent
bulging and pouting mouth. In those days of my infancy I used to fancy I
should like to try to take as large a bite of a plantain as she could. I
tried twice or thrice, but could only squash a tenth of the juice of the
fruit into my mouth. She had glorious white teeth. Her grin clearly
frightened the leopard, as well as a pinch she gave him in the 'scruff'
of the neck with one of her hands, while with the other she caught hold
of his