Nevertheless, an elephant was not an unknown animal to them. On the contrary, they continually live in dread of elephants, whole herds of which destroy at night their manioc fields as well as banana and doom-palm plantations. As the spears and arrows do not pierce the elephant's hide, the poor negroes fight the depredators with the help of fire, with the aid of cries imitating a cockerel's crow, by digging pits, and constructing traps made of the trunks of trees. But that an elephant should become slave of man and permit one to sit on his neck was something which none of them ever saw before, and it never entered into the mind of any of them that anything like that was possible. So the spectacle which was presented to them passed so far beyond their understanding and imagination that they did not know what to do: whether to fight or to run where their eyes should lead them, though it would result in leaving them to the caprice of fate.
So in uncertainty, alarm, and amazement they only whispered to each other:
"Oh, mother! What creatures are these which have come to us, and what awaits us at their hands?"
But at this Kali, having ridden within a spear's throw of them, stood up in the stirrups and began to shout:
"People! people! Listen to the voice of Kali, the son of Fumba, the mighty king of the Wahimas on the shores of Bassa-Narok. Oh listen, listen, and if you understand his speech, pay heed to each word that he utters."
"We understand," rang the answer of three hundred mouths.
"Let your king stand forth; let him tell his name and let him open his ears and lips that he may hear better."
"M'Rua! M'Rua!" numerous voices began to cry.
M'Rua stepped in front of the ranks, but not more than three paces. He was a negro, already old, tall and powerfully built, but evidently did not suffer from too much courage, as the calves of his legs quivered so that he had to implant the edge of a spear in the ground and support himself on the shaft in order to stand on his legs.
After his example, the other warriors also drove the spears into the ground in sign that they wanted to hear peaceably the words of the arrival.