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Show 310 ON THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE OKAPI. [Nov. 14, many a time heard it run away when he passed such glades as described above. The Okapi is extremely wary and shy, and nocturnal in its habits. It lives singly or perhaps in pairs, never in herds. The negroes know very little about it, and, as a rule, it is only the Wambutti-dwarfs who are able to kill it. These dwarfs are perhaps the most perfect of all hunting tribes and steal up near the animals, slaying them with spears. How little the negroes (not counting the dwarfs) know about the Okapi, may be concluded from the following ridiculous tale told and believed by them. They have observed that the Okapi is very cleanly, and even during the rainy season, when almost all other animals are more or less dirty, its skin is just as clean as ever. The negroes say then that the Okapi climbs up in the trees (!) to keep itself clean and to avoid the dirty muddy soil. I have used the name Okapi as that is the one known to the zoological world, and has become the nomen triviale of this interesting mammal. Lieutenant Eriksson informs me, however, that it was only a mere chance that it happened so. Okapi (with long-drawn a) is only used by the Wambobba tribe for signifying this animal. The Wambobba language is hardly spoken by more than 300 persons, but it was Wambutti-dwarfs, living in harmony with Wambobbas and speaking their language*, that brought the first remains of the Okapi, hence the name. (The first complete specimens were procured by another tribe of Wambuttis belonging to Wabira negroes, which use another name mentioned below.) But it is still worse, because the word " Okapi " means simply in the Wambobba language " donkey " or ‘‘ ass." Strictly speaking, therefore, the latinised " Okapia," which became the second and permanent scientific generic name of this mammal, is not much better with regard to its original meaning than the first generic term " Equits," applied before anything but a piece of skin was known. The name by which the Okapi is known in most of the Congo languages is " Diunba." I a,m glad to lie able to add that the Okapi is protected by law, so that it is forbidden to kill it without special permission. The Wambutti-dwarfs and the leopards do not, however, respect any laws, and therein lies the danger for the existence of this animal. Lieutenant Eriksson has also told me that in the great forest a kind of black wild hog is to be found, which may be the recentlv described llylocho&rus meinertzhageni. These hogs are called by the negroes " n'gulube bibi," which means " black hog," whilst " n'gulube" = hog is the name of the common Red River-Hog (Potamocluerus pore us). * The Wambuttis always use tlie language of those negro tribes with which they live m symbiosis, and from which they obtain vegetables for meat and honey from the forest. |
