Buch lesen: «In African Forest and Jungle»

CHAPTER I

A CANOE-VOYAGE TO THE COUNTRY OF ROTEMBO THE CHIEF – A TOILET OF CEREMONY – ROTEMBO's GROTESQUE COSTUME – A FORMAL RECEPTION – SPEECHES OF ROTEMBO AND MYSELF – A DANCE IN MY HONOR – MY PRESENTS TO THE CHIEF – WE BECOME GOOD FRIENDS

The canoe that took me from King Mombo to Rotembo the Chief was a dug-out made of a huge tree, and was of great length. On its prow was carved the head of a growling leopard. It was paddled by forty men. Rikimongani, the nephew of King Mombo, steered, and had the stick Omemba (the snake) with him to show that he carried the message of his uncle King Mombo to Rotembo the Chief.

Near the prow were two men who beat two tomtoms furiously almost all the time, which was to show that they were on an important mission.

The sun was very hot, and the heat was intense. The black oily skins of the men shone as if they had been eelskins. The river banks were lined with mangrove trees, supported on their tall roots, and as the tide was low, we could see multitudes of oysters growing round them.

We passed at last the region of the mangrove trees, which only grow where the tide is felt and where the banks of the rivers are flat. Then the banks of the Ogobai river became hilly and clad with the trees of the forest to their very top. Here and there a flock of gray parrots with red tails were feeding on fruits, or a troop of monkeys was seen.

The following day, as we were approaching the village of Rotembo the Chief, we landed, and the men made their toilet so as to appear at their best when they arrived at the village of Rotembo.

Rikimongani put a shirt on, and a high silk hat – this was the costume he wore on state occasions. He was the best dressed man of the company.

Then we re-embarked, and as we paddled the men began to sing, and to beat the tomtoms furiously. Soon the village of Rotembo came in sight. Then the men sang louder than before, and their song was —

 
"We come with the great Oguizi,
The great friend of King Mombo,
To Rotembo the great Chief;"
 

and they repeated these words over and over. They began to fire guns, thus showing that they were on a great mission and that it was an occasion worth wasting powder for.

As we came opposite the village of Rotembo, we suddenly turned towards the land, with the head of our canoe facing the village. Rikimongani stood up now so that the people on shore could recognize him. We landed in the midst of singing, tomtom-beating, and gun-firing.

As my paddlers jumped out of the canoe, they shouted to the great number of people that had come to look at us: "We are men! We are men! We have come with the great Oguizi." Then all became silent, and we passed through the people walking until we came to a large structure with a roof supported by pillars. There we waited for Rotembo the Wise, surrounded by hundreds of villagers.

Soon we heard the noise of the kendo, a rude iron bell, the emblem of chiefs. Rotembo was coming. As he rang it, he invoked the spirits of his ancestors to be with him, and soon I saw his tall erect form walking towards us.

He kept beating the kendo, and at last came under the great shed and walked towards the stool that was next to mine, then looked at me without saying a word and seated himself.

Rotembo was dressed with a waistcoat, a shirt, and an old silk hat, which to judge by its shape and shabbiness must have been at least twenty-five years old. He was covered with mondahs, or charms, that he believed had the power of preventing any harm from coming to him.

Then Rikimongani, with Omemba, the stick of King Mombo, in his hand, delivered the words of King Mombo to his uncle, saying:

"My uncle King Mombo, who loves you dearly, sends the Oguizi to you. You must take care of him, give him food and water and all he asks of you. Let him go into the forest and hunt, and give him the best hunters that you have. Let him have his own way, and when he gets tired of the country, give him people, as I have done, to take him where he wants to go."

Upon this Rotembo got up and said: "It was kind of my kinsman King Mombo to send to me the great Oguizi. I will do what King Mombo has told me to do." Then addressing me, he said: "Oguizi, we have heard of you. Your fame is great all over the land. You are known as the good Oguizi. I want you to love me as you love King Mombo."

"Rotembo, great Chief," I replied, "I wish to go and live in the forest. I desire to kill all the wild beasts I can and stuff them. I want to kill three or four of every kind of all the birds of the country and stuff them. I want to catch all the butterflies and insects I can and keep them. I wish to take them to the land of the Oguizis, and show there the creatures seen in the great forest where the black man lives."

Rotembo's eyes seemed to become twice as large as they were before when he heard me speak in this manner. He looked at me with wonder and awe.

I said to him: "I mean what I say, and when you see me return from the forest you will find that I told you the truth and several canoes will be required for the skins of the animals I shall collect."

"You shall go into the forest," said Rotembo, "and stay with my slaves or people that are living there."

Then, in presence of all the people of his village, he presented me with a goat, six chickens, and nine eggs, and a number of bunches of plantain. Here an egg has the same value as a chicken, for, as the people say, out of the egg comes the chicken. These presents showed that I was welcomed.

Rotembo was the chief of one of the clans that composed his tribe, and in case of war his people, scattered in a goodly number of small villages, could muster many warriors.

Rotembo was tall, walked very erect, and had a commanding appearance. His hair was white; several ugly scars told of his warlike character and experiences in days gone by. When young he loved war, and the people feared him. Now that he had become old he loved peace, and his neighbors and people were happy on that account.

In the midst of vociferous cheers he put his kendo, the emblem of a chieftain, upon my left shoulder; then said with a loud voice: "During the time you stay with me you will be our chief; we will all obey you." After these words the tomtoms beat furiously, and guns were fired.

The speech-making being over, my men went to our canoe and brought back the goods I had with me. I had come to Rotembo rich, for I had brought twenty brass kettles, one hundred copper rods, a goodly number of bunches of beads, looking-glasses, fire steel and flints, files, and my "precious box," which I valued more than everything else I possessed, for in that box were the instruments and books which helped me to know my latitude and longitude, and the days of the week and of the month when I had forgotten them, which was not uncommon after attacks of fever.

That evening we had a great dance, given in my honor. Rotembo himself danced before me in a most eccentric manner, making great contortions. His people applauded him vociferously. The women danced also.

The following evening, when every one was asleep, Rotembo came with Oyaya, his head wife, to get the presents I had for him. He also, like all the other chiefs to whom I made presents, implored me not to tell anyone of the things I gave him.

After a few days' feasting, King Mombo's people returned to their country. Rotembo and I became very great friends in a short time. He came often to see me, for he was always delighted to hear my musical box and Waterbury clock talk to me. He liked to see my matches start fire suddenly, and he always wondered at my magnet. Once in a while I would give him little presents which he put in the bag he carried on his shoulder and which contained his small idol. No one ever thought that in the bag were bunches of beads and various other trinkets.

CHAPTER II

I PROPOSE TO GO INTO THE FOREST TO HUNT – ROTEMBO PROMISES ME THREE GIFTS – ROGALA, THE FAMOUS HUNTER, THE FIRST OF THEM – DESCRIPTION OF ROGALA – ANDEKKO, THE DOG, THE SECOND GIFT – NDOVA, THE MONKEY, THE THIRD – HOW NDOVA WAS CAPTURED AND REARED – I GIVE ROTEMBO SOME OF MY HAIR.

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."

Rotembo looked at me with great astonishment, for he wondered why I wished to go and live in the forest by myself with only one man.

He remained silent for a minute or two, thinking deeply; then he said: "Oguizi, I will give you three gifts to go with you in the forest."

"What are they?" I asked.

"I will not tell you now," he replied, "but you will know when they are before you."

Then we separated, I wondering what were to be the three gifts Rotembo was to give me.

Four days passed by, and on the fifth, while I was seated by the side of Rotembo, a strange-looking man came before him, and bending very low took hold of his foot and said: "To do your bidding your faithful slave has come."

I looked at the man with great curiosity, and learned that his name was Rogala and that he was one of the most famous hunters in the country.

Rogala was of medium height and exceedingly well proportioned. His legs and arms were very muscular and as hard as wood. His chest was broad, and his hands and feet were small, – a very common occurrence among the people of the forest. His eyes were full of fire and daring. He had a fighting chin, and he appeared to be about forty years old. Scars upon one of his legs told where a leopard had once wounded him. He wore a huge head-dress of eagle's feathers. His eyelids were painted red, and a red stripe from the nose upward divided his forehead in two parts. The face was painted white, and on each side of the mouth were two round red spots. He was covered with mondahs, or charms. One of these protected him against witchcraft; another made him invulnerable against bullets, spears, or poisoned arrows – in a word, every one of them protected him against some evil or other.

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."

I counted forty-eight of them; so Rogala had killed twelve leopards for the chief's necklace. He himself wore one with twenty-four canines; so before me were the witnesses of eighteen leopards that he had killed.

As I looked at Rogala, I said to myself: "He is just the kind of man I should like to take into the forest with me."

"Rogala is one of the three gifts I have promised you," said Rotembo.

I thanked the chief for the gift of Rogala, whereupon he said to him: "You know that I have always treated you well. Several times when I wanted to marry the daughters of chiefs they said, 'Only upon one condition can you marry my daughter, and that is, that you give me Rogala.' I always refused them, for I would not part with you."

I did not wonder at it, for if Rogala had killed over one hundred elephants, the barter of their tusks had brought wealth to Rotembo.

"I have given you to the Oguizi while he is in my country," continued the chief. "You must take care of him as you do of me. You must follow him in the forest. You must sleep by his side. You must face the wild beasts with him, and show him that Rogala's heart knows no fear. Put no shame on me by running away before danger; if you do you might just as well die in the jaws of a wild beast, for I myself will kill you. He is my Oguizi, and I love him. See that he is never hungry or thirsty."

While the chief was talking, Rogala listened reverently. When Rotembo had done speaking, Rogala said: "Chief, the best of masters, Rogala always does what you order him to do. I will do all you say, and follow the Oguizi wherever he goes, and live with him in the great forest and hunt with him. I will take care of him just as if he were my sweetheart."

"Rogala," said I, "I will be your friend. When we get into the forest, we will be like two men who are born the same day." Among the Africans of the great forest, when two men are born the same day, they are foster brothers.

"Good indeed you are, Oguizi," replied Rogala. "I will obey you in everything."

Then I presented him with a big hunting-knife, which pleased him greatly.

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 has captured several young nginas and nshiegos after their mothers were killed, and gone into the lair of leopards and killed their young. The wonder is that he has not been killed by a gorilla or leopard long before now or been gashed in two by a boar or disabled by monkeys. Many times he will prevent you from being hungry while you are in the forest."

I gazed at Andekko with wonder, he looked so very ugly. He was covered with scars, marks of the wounds he had received in his conflicts with wild animals. One of his ears was split in two. His upper and lower lips were also cut on the left side. These two wounds had been made by a large monkey, called a mandril, which often walks on the ground and had been surprised there by Andekko.

Rotembo, seeing that I was looking at the scars of Andekko, said: "Oguizi, when wounded, this dog becomes even fiercer and more courageous than before. He is famous for his courage."

Andekko belonged to the same family of dogs as those that had gone gorilla-hunting with me at King Mombo's plantation. His hair was of yellowish color, and he had a white spot on his throat. His tail could not have been more curly, and he was quite lean; his legs were somewhat long.

Then Rotembo said: "Oguizi, Andekko is the second gift I promised you."

The next day Rogala came again, but this time with a monkey called Ndova. He was a fine creature, with a nice coat of hair and a white nose. The chief, pointing to the monkey, said: "His name is Ndova, and he has the intelligence of a man. He goes with Rogala into the forest. We have given him the name of Ndova because the species of monkeys to which he belongs is so called. You will not often be hungry in the forest when Ndova is with you, for he will call upon other ndovas to come to him while he stands close to you and Rogala, and when these come you will shoot them. You will have plenty of monkey meat to eat. When monkeys are fat," he added, "they taste fine, especially if they are broiled on a bright charcoal fire. While living on my plantations, I often take Ndova with me. He can only call on his fellow ndovas, for the other species do not understand his talk.

"There will be days," added Rotembo, "when you will find no monkeys or other game and hunger will come upon you. Then Ndova must follow you. There are many kinds of fruits, berries, and nuts in the forest; these look very tempting, but several of them are very poisonous, and people die if they eat them. So when you see any fruit, berries, or nuts you do not know, do not eat them until you give them to Ndova first. If he eats them, these are also good for you."

"Monkeys never make a mistake; they have a gift which no man possesses. By the sense of smell they can tell if a berry, nut, or fruit is poisonous. They always smell a thing they do not know before eating it, and when it is poisonous they throw it away. If it is not poisonous, they give it a bite. In that case what is good for the monkey is good for the man. But I must tell you that often the nuts, berries, or fruits a monkey likes men do not like, for monkeys and men have not always the same taste."

After hearing the words of Rotembo I looked with renewed curiosity at Ndova. He was almost as large as Andekko. His nose was white, which contrasted strongly with the color of his dark hair tipped with whitish gray. He had long canine teeth. I was glad to hear he was gentle, for I should not have liked to be bitten by him.

"Oguizi, I give you Ndova," Rotembo said. "He is the third gift I promised you. I think you will get on well in the forest with Rogala, Andekko, and Ndova. There are two other of my slaves who are also great hunters. Their names are Shinshooko and Alapai. These three men live close together in the forest and spend their lives in hunting; they have their families with them.

"I got Ndova in the following manner," he continued. "I and my slave Rogala were hunting together near the plantation where you are going. We were lying in wait for boars, when finally we heard their grunts. We heard at the same time the chatter of monkeys above our heads. The boars came in sight and we fired. Then, to our astonishment, a little monkey fell from the tree above our heads. The firing of our guns had frightened his mother, who dropped him. He did not have the strength to hold on to the branches. I seized the little fellow and put him into my bag. The mother followed all the way back to the plantation, uttering cries of distress and anger. Sometimes she would come down to the ground, look at us, and go up into the trees again. She did not dare to approach too near us. After coming to the house we fed the little monkey with the milk of a goat and called him Ndova. His mother at the same time remained on a commanding tree close by, calling the little fellow. Soon she was joined by her mate, who added his calls to hers. They slept on a tree near the plantation that night, and we kept the baby in the house. At daylight the two big monkeys were still on the same tree, and uttered cries of anguish and distress, calling for the little fellow, but did not dare to come down.

"Three days passed and we thought little Ndova's mother had got tired and gone away for good into the forest, leaving her offspring to his fate, for we no longer heard her cries.

"We made a little bed of leaves and used to leave Ndova upon it in the sun. We had gone into our huts one afternoon. After a while I came out of the house and just in time. For Ndova's mother had apparently been watching from a tree and seeing nobody had come down and had taken hold of Ndova and was carrying him away into the forest as fast as she could. I shouted with all my might, and Ndova lost his hold and dropped to the ground.

"We went into the forest and made a trap to catch the mother, and brought the little monkey and put him in the trap. We were then sure that she would come and see him and try to get him away. When everything was ready, we hid and waited. After a time we saw a monkey quietly coming down a tree. It was the mother; we recognized her by her white nose. She uttered a sound of joy as she approached Ndova. Then she got into the cage, and the trap-door closed behind her.

"When we came towards the cage, the big monkey was much frightened. We took the cage with us.

"The mother nursed the little one for over ten moons (months), and after that she stayed with him until she died. By that time Ndova could take care of himself, and had learned the language of the ndova monkeys from his mother.

"After the death of his mother, Rogala took Ndova, who had grown fond of him, into the forest every day, to find food for himself, leading him by a string. Often the monkeys of his kind would come around above his head and talk to him, and Ndova would answer them. After a time Rogala tied a long rope to Ndova, so that he might go higher up the trees after fruits. Then came the time when Ndova could talk very loud and call other ndovas to him, and Rogala found that Ndova had become very useful. Rogala, Ndova, and Andekko are now three inseparable friends. Ndova and Andekko are great chums, for they love to play together."

I thanked Chief Rotembo for his valuable gifts, and said that they would be of great service to me, and promised that when ready to leave the country I would return Ndova and Andekko to him.

When Rogala heard these words, a broad grin of satisfaction overspread his face. He was the keeper of Andekko and Ndova, both of whom were his constant companions. He was afraid that Rotembo had given them to me for all time.

I gave a bone to Andekko, who was inclined to growl at me at first, and a ripe plantain to Ndova, who gave a peculiar "Oh oh" to show his joy. I found afterward that Ndova was very fond of ripe plantains and bananas.

"I will feed Ndova and Andekko often," said I to Rogala, "so that they may get accustomed to me."

I often think that if it had not been for Andekko and Ndova I should probably have died of starvation in the great forest.

A few days afterwards Rotembo came to me and said: "Oguizi, I want you to give me some of your hair. I shall consider this the greatest gift that I have ever received."

My hair had become very long and hung over my shoulders. I had let it grow, for it excited great wonder among the natives. It was very black and silky. So I pulled out half a dozen hairs and presented them to Rotembo. As soon as he received the gift, he muttered words I could not understand, then took his little idol from the bag that always hung by his side, and wound two of the hairs round and round its neck. The four others he carefully put aside in a little wooden box. After this he looked perfectly happy, and said to me, "Oguizi, the six long hairs you have given me are more valuable in my eyes than many tusks of elephants, brass kettles, wives, or slaves."

I often wished I had had flaxen hair and blue eyes instead of black hair and hazel eyes, for I should then have appeared still more wonderful in the eyes of these wild and savage men.