The creature, if it had its origin in the locality, must either have
been solitary in its habits or driven away from its fellows, as
sometimes happens to old elephants, which then, like this gorilla,
become fearfully ferocious.
That is all I can say about the brute, though of course the Pongo had
their own story. According to them it was an evil spirit in the shape
of an ape, which evil spirit had once inhabited the body of an early
Kalubi, and had been annexed by the ape when it killed the said
Kalubi. Also they declared that the reason the creature put all the
Kalubis to death, as well as a number of other people who were offered
up to it, was that it needed "to refresh itself with the spirits of
men," by which means it was enabled to avoid the effects of age. It
will be remembered that the Motombo referred to this belief, of which
afterwards I heard in more detail from Babemba. But if this god had
anything supernatural about it, at least its magic was no shield
against a bullet from a Purdey rifle.
Only a little way from the fallen tree we came suddenly upon a large
clearing, which we guessed at once must be that "Garden of the god"
where twice a year the unfortunate Kalubis were doomed to scatter the
"sacred seed.
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