CHAPTER XX
LEAVE THE ISLAND FOR OUR CAMP—MONKEYS AMONG THE TREES—FIND EVERYTHING UNTOUCHED—I GET LOST FOLLOWING NGINAS—AM LUCKY ENOUGH TO FIND KOOLA NUTS—CAMP UNDER THE KOOLA TREE—ANOTHER NIGHT IN THE FOREST
The time had come for us to leave the island and go back to our camp. I was very much pleased with our trip. Now I kept the days carefully. We cooked hard all the turtle's eggs we had and roasted the fish we had caught. Fish tasted very good, for we had been so long without it. Rogala loaded the raft with our outfit. On his return, after landing the latter, I embarked and bade good-bye to the island and to the sun, the moon, and the stars.
It was not long before I heard in the distance a noise like a storm amongst the branches of the trees. The sound was peculiar. Monkeys were coming towards me. This noise always proclaimed their approach. When they came in sight, I saw there was a troop of about thirty of them; they were ndovas. On their march onward, they flung themselves from branch to branch, travelling with very great speed. The branch upon which they alighted bent sometimes ten and fifteen feet under their weight, and rebounded with great force after they had sprung to another. Sometimes they were high up in the tree-tops. Then they descended, to go up higher again. They never sprang upon a branch that could not rebound, and it was during the rebound that they leaped to another, never making a mistake. Their eyes were too quick to miss their mark. They calculated the distance they could spring with marvellous accuracy.
They followed their leader, a big fellow, in quick succession and in silence, and seemed to go four or five abreast. They used chiefly their arms to grasp the branches upon which they alighted and their legs to support themselves. They were so quick in their motion that my eyes often could not follow the movement of their limbs. The end of branches often struck against their faces, but apparently did them no harm, as they swung in the same direction. So they went forward, leaving behind them branches of the trees still swaying for quite a while, filling the forest with their tremor.
They were travelling parallel with the hunting-path, and seemed to go at the rate of fifteen miles or more an hour. Soon they were out of my sight. Gradually the noise they made became less and less and less and then ceased. They were far away. I continued on my way towards the plantation. After a few miles I heard the chatter of ndovas, and came upon a tree upon which they were feeding. They seemed to be having a great carnival of joy amongst themselves. I was interested in looking at them, hidden in a thick bush, and did not wish to kill any, as we had food enough in the camp. They made queer faces at each other; the leader would give now and then a fruit to one of his female companions.
When we got sight of our camp, we looked around and listened awhile, but nobody was there. We went after the ladder, climbed it, and soon were within the enclosure. Ndova's house was just as it was. Rogala's house for the new moon was intact. The large stock of firewood we had gathered was all there. Nothing had been disturbed. Our abode had been discovered by no one.
Two days after Shinshooko and Alapai returned loaded with plantains. We were glad to see them again, and enjoyed the plantains prodigiously.
A few days after our return I went into the forest in search of game. Towards noon I heard, at some distance from the path, a noise made by some animal. I left the path and went in the direction of the noise. The jungle in that part of the forest was not thick, and I could walk fast.