I Dared Not Trust Him With The Box Whole, Having A Personal
Conviction That He Would Have Kept It.
I asked him what he would do
suppose I was not there with a box of lucifers; and he produced a
bush-cow's horn with a neat wood lid tied on with tie tie, and from
out of it he produced a flint and steel and demonstrated.
The first day in the forest we came across a snake {205} - a beauty
with a new red-brown and yellow-patterned velvety skin, about three
feet six inches long and as thick as a man's thigh. Ngouta met it,
hanging from a bough, and shot backwards like a lobster, Ngouta
having among his many weaknesses a rooted horror of snakes. This
snake the Ogowe natives all hold in great aversion. For the bite of
other sorts of snakes they profess to have remedies, but for this
they have none. If, however, a native is stung by one he usually
conceals the fact that it was this particular kind, and tries to get
any chance the native doctor's medicine may give. The Duke stepped
forward and with one blow flattened its head against the tree with
his gun butt, and then folded the snake up and got as much of it as
possible into his bag, while the rest hung dangling out. Ngouta,
not being able to keep ahead of the Duke, his Grace's pace being
stiff, went to the extreme rear of the party, so that other people
might be killed first if the snake returned to life, as he surmised
it would. He fell into other dangers from this caution, but I
cannot chronicle Ngouta's afflictions in full without running this
book into an old fashioned folio size. We had the snake for supper,
that is to say the Fan and I; the others would not touch it,
although a good snake, properly cooked, is one of the best meats one
gets out here, far and away better than the African fowl.
The Fans also did their best to educate me in every way: they told
me their names for things, while I told them mine. I found several
European words already slightly altered in use among them, such as
"Amuck" - a mug, "Alas" - a glass, a tumbler. I do not know whether
their "Ami" - a person addressed, or spoken of - is French or not. It
may come from "Anwe" - M'pongwe for "Ye," "You." They use it as a
rule in addressing a person after the phrase they always open up
conversation with, "Azuna" - Listen, or I am speaking.
They also showed me many things: how to light a fire from the pith
of a certain tree, which was useful to me in after life, but they
rather overdid this branch of instruction one way and another; for
example, Wiki had, as above indicated, a mania for bush-ropes and a
marvellous eye and knowledge of them; he would pick out from among
the thousands surrounding us now one of such peculiar suppleness
that you could wind it round anything, like a strip of cloth, and as
strong withal as a hawser; or again another which has a certain
stiffness, combined with a slight elastic spring, excellent for
hauling, with the ease and accuracy of a lady who picks out the
particular twisted strand of embroidery silk from a multi-coloured
tangled ball. He would go into the bush after them while other
people were resting, and particularly after the sort which, when
split, is bright yellow, and very supple and excellent to tie round
loads.
On one occasion, between Egaja and Esoon, he came back from one of
these quests and wanted me to come and see something, very quietly;
I went, and we crept down into a rocky ravine, on the other side of
which lay one of the outermost Egaja plantations. When we got to
the edge of the cleared ground, we lay down, and wormed our way,
with elaborate caution, among a patch of Koko; Wiki first, I
following in his trail.
After about fifty yards of this, Wiki sank flat, and I saw before me
some thirty yards off, busily employed in pulling down plantains,
and other depredations, five gorillas: one old male, one young
male, and three females. One of these had clinging to her a young
fellow, with beautiful wavy black hair with just a kink in it. The
big male was crouching on his haunches, with his long arms hanging
down on either side, with the backs of his hands on the ground, the
palms upwards. The elder lady was tearing to pieces and eating a
pine-apple, while the others were at the plantains destroying more
than they ate.
They kept up a sort of a whinnying, chattering noise, quite
different from the sound I have heard gorillas give when enraged, or
from the one you can hear them giving when they are what the natives
call "dancing" at night. I noticed that their reach of arm was
immense, and that when they went from one tree to another, they
squattered across the open ground in a most inelegant style,
dragging their long arms with the knuckles downwards. I should
think the big male and female were over six feet each. The others
would be from four to five. I put out my hand and laid it on Wiki's
gun to prevent him from firing, and he, thinking I was going to
fire, gripped my wrist.
I watched the gorillas with great interest for a few seconds, until
I heard Wiki make a peculiar small sound, and looking at him saw his
face was working in an awful way as he clutched his throat with his
hand violently.
Heavens! think I, this gentleman's going to have a fit; it's lost we
are entirely this time. He rolled his head to and fro, and then
buried his face into a heap of dried rubbish at the foot of a
plantain stem, clasped his hands over it, and gave an explosive
sneeze.
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