Looking at Ndova, I said to Rogala: "Ndova is much better off than Andekko. He is not so thin. Would you take a knife and kill our friend Ndova, who has been so often the cause of our getting food, thus preventing us from starving?"
Then I recounted one by one all the different times Ndova and Andekko had saved us from hunger or starvation and said: "Rogala, Ndova and Andekko have been faithful to us. We shall be faithful to them, and if we get food we will divide it amongst all of us."
All the time I was thinking what to do to relieve our hunger. We were in desperate straits. Suddenly I said: "Rogala, I have found food."
At my words Rogala brightened up. "Where is the food?" he inquired.
"There," I said, pointing to my bed. He glanced there, but there was no food to be seen, and he looked disappointed.
"Yes, Rogala," I persisted, "there is food on my bed."
Two antelope skins which we had stretched and dried lay on my bed. I had intended to make shoes, leggings, and trousers with them. But, pointing to the two skins, I said: "We will boil these skins and eat them. That will keep us all from starving until we find game."
Rogala's eyes were now full of life and hope. I wondered why I had not thought of this before. So we made preparations at once for a meal. We cut off a part of one of the antelope skins, and poured hot water upon the hair and scraped and washed it afterwards. Then we cut the skin into very small pieces, and boiled these until they became quite soft, after which, as a relish, we added some salt and some red pepper—I could hardly eat anything without pepper. When ready, we poured the contents into a wooden dish. This done, we sat around it, Andekko standing by us and waiting with eager eyes for his share of the boiled skin. We thought the food was not bad, for we were famished.
After the meal I said: "Men, these two antelope skins will furnish us food for three or four days, and that will give us time to find game and nuts." We felt much stronger after our meal.
The following day Shinshooko and Alapai went to look after the traps to see if any animals had been caught. Rogala and I went into the forest with Ndova and Andekko.