N’pongo stood about eighteen inches high and was quite handsome and healthy looking baby gorilla. When the narrator lifted him up, he was surprised at how heavy he was for his size and then realized it was all bone and muscle, there was not a spare ounce of fat on him. Within twelve months, N’pongo doubled up in size.

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The narrator had decided to keep N’pongo in his house as the cage wasn’t ready. N’pongo‘s grave, courteous manner and his rather sad expression won over both the narrator’s wife, Jacquie and his mother. He was supplied with delicacies and the staff came upstairs one by one to pay homage to him. N’pongo’s movements were quite interesting to watch. When he became bored with lying in the sofa, he would make a circuit of the room to examine everything of interest. So he used to walk slowly round like a small black professor in a museum. Now and then he would pause to look at a picture, to stroke an ornament but he would do it very gently so that nothing would break.

In front of Nandy, N’pongo had a playful side and he used to annoy his partner Nandy only out of pure fun. He would bully or tease, without any malice. When N’pongo pulled a handful of her hair, she disapproved the act with a grunt of indignation but knew N’pongo did that out of fun and nothing else.

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