Paul B. Du Chaillu

“ A number of voices answered: "Yes, the Oguizi is here with us, and slept in our village last night."
Then they opened the door. The man was Rogala, followed by Andekko, and having Ndova on his shoulder. I was at the other end of the street. When I saw him, I came towards him, and in an instant we were in each other's arms, to the great astonishment of the people of the village, who were mute with wonder at our outburst of friendship. Rogala shouted, "We are men! we are men!" ”

“ Rotembo said to me: "I can trust Rogala more than any other man in the country. I bought him when he was quite young, and he has forgotten the language of his tribe. He faces without fear the ngina (gorilla) , the elephant, the leopard, and the fiercest bear of the country. He has killed during his life more than one hundred elephants and he has kept all their tails as proofs. The number of hippopotami that have fallen under his gun is very great; the necklace I wear round my neck is made of the canines of some of the leopards he has killed." ”

“ After watching them awhile, Rogala and Shinshooko whispered: "Oguizi, we must follow the river through the woods and get opposite the elephants." We walked through the jungle most carefully in order not to attract their attention. Fortunately they were having such a noisy time that they could not hear us. Nor could they scent us, as the wind was in our favor. When we surmised from the noise they made in the water that we were opposite them, we made for the banks of the river. Finally we got a glimpse of the elephants and crept to the water edge. ”

“ Now that I knew from my astronomical observations where I was, and what was the day of the month and week, I said to Rogala: "Let us go and hunt in the forest, for possibly I may kill some animals or birds I have never seen before. I have done talking to the stars, the moon, and the sun for some time now."
As we were ready to go across the river, I said to Rogala: "We must take our axes with us, for who knows if some wandering natives may not be roaming here and take our raft? If we have our axes, we can make another one quickly." Then we embarked, taking also Andekko and Ndova with us. ”

“ I shouted to Rogala: "Ndova is very, very ill; come and look at him;" and he came.
"Truly," he said, "Ndova is very, very ill indeed."
"If Ndova dies," I said, "we lose a very good friend who has been invaluable to us in this forest. Never shall we get another monkey as intelligent." ”

“ The tomtoms beat furiously, and more guns were fired.
"You gave me Rogala, your faithful slave," I continued; "I bring him back to you. There are Shinshooko and Alapai also, your faithful slaves, who love you. They with their wives and children have been kind to me. There is Akenda-Mbani, whom we found in the forest. Now, Rotembo, you are my friend." (All shouted, "He is your friend!") "Never let one of these men or their wives be sold." ”

“ I dreamt of friends, of boys and girls at home, of the North Star, of snow, of strawberries, peaches, and jam. I was suddenly awakened by the sharp barking of Andekko. It was broad daylight. Rogala was cook [128] ing turtle's eggs. Ndova was looking at me. All the stars had disappeared, and the sun had risen to give life and food to the sons of men, for without the sun there would be no life, no vegetation upon the earth. ”

“ The following day, while I was seated by Rotembo under the veranda of his house, I saw Rogala coming towards us. He had with him a very strange-looking dog.
Rotembo said to me: "Look at this dog. His name is Andekko. He is fearless and always in the thick of the fight. He is not afraid of any wild beast. In war he always warns us of an enemy hiding in the jungle. He is the best of hunting dogs. He goes into the forest all alone in search of game, and will drive the antelope or gazelle up to Rogala or the hunter he knows, even if it takes him the whole day to do so. ”

“ He knew that I generally brought to him nuts, berries, or fruits which he liked. When I was eating with Rogala, Shinshooko, and Alapai, Andekko was always by me, for he had learned that he fared much better by my side, as I had directed them not to feed him.
One day I said to Rogala: "Meat is getting scarce. Let us take Ndova with us into the forest to-morrow morning; perhaps he will succeed, if we meet monkeys belonging to his species, in making them come to him. Then, if we kill two or three, we shall have monkey meat to eat." ”

“ Before leaving the camp we made signs to Akenda-Mbani that we were going after food, by opening our mouths and drawing our stomachs in, to show that they were empty. He evidently understood us, for he smiled.
"If we fail to find food," said Rogala, "it will be on account of witchcraft; yes," he shouted, "it will be on account of witchcraft. I have always suspected Okambi of being a sorcerer, and it will be his witchcraft that will cause our starving." ”

“ One day after I had been in the village some time, being in the house of Rotembo, I said to him: "I have been with you quite a while, and I wish now to go far into the forest. I wish you to give me a man whom you trust, a great hunter, who is not afraid of danger and who can face with his gun the most ferocious beasts of the country. He and I will live together in the forest." ”

“ In the evening I called my hunters together, and gave each a new gun, powder, and some iron bars. I gave them beads for their wives also, and the next day I accompanied them to their canoe and bade them good-bye. They felt sad to leave me, and as they embarked, Rogala said: "Oguizi, come again to see us at our plantation."
The people believed that I had killed Andekko and Ndova to take them with me, and wondered why I had not killed my hunters to take them with me also. "When they die," said they, "the Oguizi will take them with him, for he loves them." ”

“ In the evening, as we were seated by a bright fire that illumined our camp, my men filled their pipes with tobacco, lighted them, and after a few puffs Rogala broke the silence, and said: "Oguizi, while we are hunting in the forest we must not talk, but call each other's attention by a 'click, click,' which means with us poor black men to be on the lookout, to listen, as we must be very sly, like wild beasts, and walk as noiselessly as a leopard in search of prey. As we walk along, our eyes must be everywhere, our ears must listen. Unfortunately men have only two eyes ”

“ If he had been eaten up by the bashikouays, it would have been our fault. It will never do to keep a man in nchogo unless some one is near to watch him."
"You are right, Oguizi. It is so; it is so," he repeated half a dozen times. Then he added thoughtfully: "Yes, when people have been discovered to be wizards, they are tied to a tree when the bashikouays are in the neighborhood, and in a short time nothing is left of them but their bones."
So Rogala and I took Akenda-Mbani out of his nchogos, first freeing his hands, and then his feet. ”

“ As soon as we come near him we will shout to him to stand still. I will fire 'Bulldog,' and if he has never heard a gun fired in his life he will be so scared that he will not move. If he runs away, we will run after him. We are good runners, we can go quickly through the jungle. Now let us crawl towards him; you keep on his right, I on his left."
We walked so carefully that not one of our steps could be heard. Rogala once moved towards me just to whisper: "Oguizi, he must not escape from us." ”

“ Looking at Ndova, I said to Rogala: "Ndova is much better off than Andekko. He is not so thin. [161] Would you take a knife and kill our friend Ndova, who has been so often the cause of our getting food, thus preventing us from starving?"
Then I recounted one by one all the different times Ndova and Andekko had saved us from hunger or starvation and said: "Rogala, Ndova and Andekko have been faithful to us. We shall be faithful to them, and if we get food we will divide it amongst all of us." ”

“ But above all, let us try to be as noiseless when we go through the jungle as a fish [71] swimming through the water. No man can hear a fish swim."
"Gun in hand, I watched for him to swim to the surface of the water."
"It is so," shouted Shinshooko and Alapai, in approval of what Rogala had said.
Then we thought it was time to go to sleep. As I looked round, I saw that Ndova was asleep with his head hanging down, and that Andekko was stretched at full length by one of the fires that were burning round our shelters. ”

“ There was a koola tree close to our encampment, and we collected the nuts that had fallen. These were to be kept in reserve, and were to be eaten only in case of starvation and not otherwise. For I did not know what might happen; fierce natives might find us out, and lie in wait for us and besiege us.
"Woe to any one who attacks us," I exclaimed to my men.
"Yes," shouted Rogala, his eyes shining with fierceness, "woe to them, for the Oguizi will show them how he fights." ”

“ I whispered to Rogala: "What can be the cause of Ndova's fright and anger? Look at his hair! It is standing up all over his body."
"Probably a snake," replied Rogala.
We went carefully towards the spot whence Ndova had come, and saw a huge python coiled round a tree, watching for prey. We killed the reptile, which was nearly twenty feet long. Rogala cut it into many pieces, packed them together in large leaves, and hung the parcel on the branch of a tree, and said with evident glee: "When we return I will take the parcel with me, for the snake is fat, and will make good soup." ”

“ I said to Rogala: "I wonder if Ndova could have been stung by a scorpion or a centipede during the night, or perhaps a small poisonous snake entered his house and bit him when he tried to play with it."
"No," said Rogala, "monkeys are like people; they are afraid of snakes and do not play with them." ”

“ They were looking at my Waterbury clock, and as soon as they heard the tick-tock they turned suddenly and fled in great haste towards their canoe. In a jiffy they left, filled with fear, and paddled away down the river with the greatest speed. I followed them with my eyes until they disappeared behind a bend of the river.
"Rogala came out of the den holding two little live leopards by the neck."
When Rogala rejoined me, I told him what I had seen, and he said: "Those people live higher up the river, and are going to visit their friends." ”

“ The bottom of our canoe was to be our table. Rogala, Shinshooko, Alapai, and Akenda-Mbani were seated at a table close to ours. Rotembo's wives waited upon us. A mass of people formed a great circle round us, and looked at us, and one of them said: "The great Oguizi loves also Rogala and Shinshooko, Alapai and Akenda-Mbani." ”

“ Under the veranda hung the tails of nearly all the elephants he had killed. I counted ninety-five of them. Some of the tails he had got went to Chief Rotembo. All along the roof were skulls of antelopes with the graceful spiral horns, two skulls of male gorillas, several skulls of nshiegos or chimpanzees, of wild boars, of buffaloes, of leopards and other wild animals.
Four elephant skulls stood at each corner of the house. These elephants had been killed near the plantations. Rogala was the greatest elephant hunter of his day. ”

“ Rogala raised his gun, looking at me. I made a sign to him not to fire. I did not want to kill them. "Perhaps we shall meet them in the forest," I said to myself, "and I may have a chance to study their ways." I did not even shout to scare them. They moved off gradually, and we went back to our camp.
The following day we took Andekko with us. Towards noon we were startled by the fierce barking of the dog, and heard the shrill cry of a nshiego-nkengo. Soon we came to the place, and saw Andekko looking up a tree at a young nshiego which I thought to be about a year old, and barking fiercely. ”