“Don’t you ever dare to come up here on the land again!” squealed the Rabbits, and they set about gathering the plantains and other vegetables on the Crocodile’s farm where the fire had not come.
And from that day to this the Rabbits never go near the river if they can help it, and the Crocodile never goes far from the river if he can help it. He does not like to be reminded of the time when he was caught in the fire by a trick and the Rabbits laughed at him, for the news went from one tongue to another, and the Crocodile has never heard the last of it.
CHAPTER VII
THE TRAIL OF THE ELEPHANT
The farms around the village were good to have, but the real storehouse of the people was the forest. The forests of the Congo form one of the largest tree-clad regions of the world. More rubber vines are found there than in any other place.
Yams, plantains, and pineapples grow wild in the forest. Coffee now grows wild in many parts of Africa, although it was not till 1876 that Scotch planters brought the first coffee tree to Africa, from the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. Cotton grows without being cultivated and is sometimes woven on native looms; but lately the cloth from overseas, that is sold in twelve-yard pieces by the traders, is much more popular.
Among the things grown on the farms are cassava, maize, rice, peanuts, sweet potatoes, bananas, beans, sugar-cane, tobacco, coffee, according to the nature of the soil. Rubber is almost the only product that sells for a price which makes it worth while to carry it two days’ journey to a market.
Ivory is in great demand by traders, but when an elephant is killed the ivory belongs to the king of the country. He has his workmen and artists make it into carved and ornamented articles. When the king dies, all this collection of carved ivory is destroyed; for this reason carved ivory that a trader can buy is rare in Equatorial Africa. Much uncarved ivory is also hoarded.
The people of Mpoko’s village traded rubber, palm oil, and sometimes raffia. They were now getting ready for a great journey to the trading station far down the river. All the river villages would share in this expedition, and there would be perhaps one hundred and fifty men in all. One chief might go himself, with as many men as were needed to carry his goods; another would send a trusted man in charge of ten or fifteen porters; another might send his men with their loads in charge of a friend, and so on. So strong a company would be able to travel through the wilderness without much fear of wild beasts or of human enemies.