In African Forest and Jungle

by Paul B. Du Chaillu

The next morning Rogala and I took Ndova with us into the forest, and let him stay by himself. But in a short time he returned. He was in a very angry mood, expressed by peculiar sounds; his hair stood up straight, a sign that he was afraid and angry. Not knowing what the cause could be, we made ready for any emergency, and then went towards the place from which he had come. Soon we were rewarded by the sight of a number of bees round a big hole in a tree. Ndova had discovered a beehive, and, having been stung by bees before, he had come back to us. We were delighted and made preparations to smoke the bees out and get the honey. We did so, and there was a large quantity of it. We were so hungry that we ate the wax and dead bees and the honey all together. Ndova ate heartily with us.

After we had had our feast I petted Ndova and said to him: "Ndova, you have found honey for us, now help us to find some berries."

We continued our walk, and soon came upon fruit-bearing trees. I gave one of the fruits to Ndova, but he threw it away, giving a grunt of anger or dissatisfaction at the same time. These fruits were red and looked very tempting. I petted Ndova again, and said: "Thank you, Ndova, for showing me that this beautiful fruit is poisonous."

Further on I saw some nuts at the foot of a tree. I broke one and gave it to Ndova. He ate it; so the nuts were good. We took a quantity of these with us. Nuts are far more nutritious than berries, and more wholesome.

We returned to the camp and were received with great demonstrations of joy by Andekko. Ndova made at once for Andekko and got on his back. Andekko lay down, and Ndova began to play with his hair. They had a grand time together, for Andekko loved to be scratched.

After this I constantly took Ndova with me, and found him very useful in finding berries, and sometimes he walked by my side or rested on my shoulders without being tied. One day he ascended a tree full of small ripe fruits, uttered grunts of contentment at his discovery, and began to eat while I was looking at him. As I stood under the tree to get some of the fruits that fell on the ground, I wondered whether Ndova threw them at me intentionally or not. I picked them up and tasted them. I found that they had a pleasant acid taste. After a while Ndova came down the tree with the pouch on each side of his cheeks stretched to the utmost and filled with a stock of the fruits to be eaten when hungry.

I had noticed that Ndova was apparently always hungry, for monkeys can eat all the time.

We continued our way, and it was not long before Ndova began to take food from his pouches, and he soon emptied them. He seemed contented and happy; he evidently liked very much the fruits he had eaten.

While we were taking our breakfast, one morning, I said to Rogala: "To-day we will leave Ndova in the camp and take Andekko with us. We must try to kill some game and smoke the meat."

After our meal we made preparations to leave the camp. Andekko was delighted when he saw us handling our guns, for he knew from this that we were going hunting and would take him with us. We put Ndova into the house we had made for him; we did not wish to leave him attached to his pole, for we did not know what might happen. A big eagle might pounce upon him, and being tied up to his pole he would have no chance to flee. Perhaps a huge python or some other big snake might come within the enclosure and charm him, encircle him within its powerful coils, squeeze him to death, and swallow him. Ndova did not enjoy being shut up in his house, and made us understand it by his shrill cries of dissatisfaction as we went out.