![]() ![]() And yet … I had the feeling that I was no longer pursuing these giant monkeys – they had taken possession of me and pursued me, every night, deep into my deepest dreams. I was terribly nervous and yet full of a great need to take action. But chimpanzees prefer to go back to trees to sleep, so we were dealing with a species that builds nests. What were these beings? We had, after all, found ground nests. In the days following we did not find the stone formation again. I only had a throbbing heart and empty hands. Perhaps he saved my life from these enormous apes, but at that moment I just hated him. ![]() Once again the ape cried out and looked directly into my eyes. ![]() I shuddered when I caught myself thinking of how they must also be unusually intelligent to create such a formation out of them. Yes, I’m sure they were strong enough to be able to drag the weight of stones of this size. The stones on which they were sitting seemed to be arranged into a formation. Some of them must have measured up to 2 or 3 meters. I could not classify them – I had never seen such a species. Behind him there were about ten other animals, stamping dangerously on the ground. At a distance of perhaps 10 meters, sitting right there on a stone. A penetrating scream could be heard through the forest. I was not afraid, sensing the close discovery only a few meters in front of me in the growing, narrow jungle. Soon I also heard a scream and a stomping drumming. My first Askaris, however, moved smoothly through the jungle and I followed him blindly. They had been hurt by gunshots and worn out, deaf from the eternal gossip of their wives. I had not heard anything, my heavily built colleague, Engeland, and the other Askaris kept their ears wide open but were unsuccessful on account of the wind. It was this young Askaris who heard drums and shouting on the third day of our expedition, the 20th of October. I liked to watch him as he was looking for tracks and heading the expedition through the jungle. One of my five Askaris was a very clever fellow, agile with the gun and keen in his senses. We had heard from local hunters of monkey populations in a western forest, through which a stream passed and a smaller population in the east in an area to which even the young men of the region were frightened to go. I wanted to see these monkeys and would look for them until they presented themselves to me. They were extraordinarily large and were regarded as nature’s caprices. In 1898 a Belgian officer brought three monkey skulls from this area to Brussels. Besides, I had a transcript from Belgium with me and looked carefully after it, as if it were the Bible. What was true and what was myth, I couldn’t judge. We were in the Congo, in a region around Bili and Bondo, in search of giant apes.Įverything we knew about these animals came from a few legends the inhabitants of this area has passed onto us. “The jungle still keeps great secrets from us”, I said, as I took the first step away from the well-trodden paths into the wild jungle. ![]()
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