After a long walk we approached the ground where the men expected to find nshiego-mbouvés. We were startled by the voices of two of them. They were talking to each other,—the male was calling for his mate,—and as it was getting toward sunset Rogala said: "He is calling his wife, for he thinks that it is time to go to bed."
"What do you mean, Rogala?" said I.
"These nshiego-mbouvés," he replied, "make resting-places upon the trees to sleep in at night. The 'man' has one place, the 'woman' another. Let us go carefully into the jungle and see if we can see their 'beds.'"
We did so, but found nothing, and decided to camp for the night, Rogala's net making a nice soft pillow for me. At dawn next day, when it was just light enough to see our way, we ate a light breakfast and started forward. We soon came to a part of the forest where there were many trees laden with the fruit Rogala had mentioned. Soon we saw places where two nshiego-mbouvés had been eating the day before, and where after their meal they had rested on their backs, side by side.
"See here," whispered Rogala; "there they rested, for they had eaten too much. They will remain in this region for a few days, for they find plenty to eat."
The others said: "We are sure to meet them if we are patient, but the nshiego-mbouvés are so shy that we must be extremely careful not to raise their suspicions, otherwise they will escape from us."
At last Rogala gave a "cluck," stopped, and looked at me. He put his finger upon his lips, a sign to keep perfectly still; then put his hands to his ears, which meant "Listen." We heard the voices of two nshiego-mbouvés close to us. They were talking in a sort of low tone or grunt. I looked at "Bulldog;" it was all right. Rogala looked at the pan of his gun; it was closed. He raised it; the powder was there. Then he closed it again.
We advanced in the direction of the noise, when suddenly Rogala stopped and made me a sign to lie low on the ground. Then we crawled toward the trunk of a big fallen tree. Rogala's quick ears had detected that the nshiego-mbouvés were coming in our direction, and soon after, as we peeped over the trunk of the tree, we saw a female nshiego-mbouvé with a black face, then a very young nshiego-mbouvé near her. His face was very white, as white as that of any white child. The mother seated herself and nursed the little fellow. It all looked very human. She plucked some fruit, threw away the pulp, then gave the inside to the little fellow, who said, "Whoe, whoe." While he was eating this, she ate half a dozen herself.
"He put his nose close to her face and moaned pitifully."