The word "gorilla" is translated as "overgrown haired woman '

The word "gorilla" - the name of the largest members of the order of primates, generally translated as "covered with hair of women." The name goes back as far as 480 BC. e., and its authorship (actually the first recorded use of) belongs to the Carthaginian navigator Hanno, who met a tribe of "women" during his travels in Africa. When Thomas Savage, an American missionary took the description of this species in 1847, he decided to use just the word "gorilla" to describe the "ape-like beast outstanding size and ferocity».

But back to Gannon. Here's what he wrote about the first meeting with the "woolen women": "In the depths of the Gulf is an island, like the first, having a bay; it is another island inhabited by wild men. There were many women whose bodies are overgrown with hair; interpreters called them Gorillas. In pursuit, we were not able to capture the men, they all ran away, climbing the steep rocks and protected; the three women we captured; they bite and scratch those who led them, and did not want to go after them. However, the killing, we skinned them and brought the skins to Carthage "(History of Africa. A Reader. - M .: Science, 1979). Enough fun way to get acquainted with the newly discovered tribe elected Carthaginians!

Source: www.znaeteli.ru

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