I went out and met another friend who also asked me to dinner. This one had turkey instead of roast beef. How I looked at the turkey! It had been roasted to a nicety, and was a rich brown all over. Then my friend asked: "Paul, which piece do you like best?" To which I answered: "I have no choice." Then a large piece was put on a plate for me with the stuffing. The waitress would pass the cranberry sauce, then the potatoes and the green peas. How good all these tasted! Then came the strawberries and the ice-cream. Then more dinners, with other friends. How I enjoyed these in my imagination! Then hunger would stop, and then come back with ten times greater force. We drank as much water as we could, for there is nourishment in water.
Akenda-Mbani went to look after his traps one day, and Rogala and I went hunting. We were in desperate straits. We had gone quite a distance from the camp, and had seen nothing, when suddenly I thought I heard something in the distance. I gave a "click." As soon as Rogala heard it he stopped and then came to my side. I had heard, as I thought, monkeys leaping from tree to tree. We stood still, and the noise became gradually louder. The monkeys were evidently coming in our direction. Hope of food loomed before our eyes. Then all became silent; the monkeys had manifestly stopped upon some fruit-bearing trees, and were feeding. At such times they are always still, for they do not want to attract the attention of other monkeys.
We went in the direction where we thought they were, looking at the tops of the trees as we went along. After a while we heard nuts falling on the ground. Soon we came under the tree, and pulp and seeds fell upon our heads and all around us. Looking up, we saw the monkeys. I counted seventeen of them; they were nkagos, and were so busy eating that they did not notice us.
We picked out two of the biggest, aimed at them carefully, and fired. They fell on the ground with a great crash. In the meantime the troop gave a shrill cry of fear and decamped with the utmost speed, and for a long time afterwards we could hear the noise of the branches as they rose again after the monkeys had leaped to others. When they thought they were far from danger, they stopped and uttered the peculiar nkago cry, calling upon their missing companions; but no answer came back to them, for our two monkeys were stone dead.
They kept calling again and again, however, for a time; then at last we heard nothing more. We swung the monkeys over our backs, and had regained the hunting path leading towards our camp, when I thought I heard a slight noise on a tree. I looked up, thinking a bird had made it, when to my surprise I saw a monkey looking down upon us. He was a nkago, and was following his dead mate, and looking down upon her in deep silence. I could see his human-like eyes watching us. He had wondered why his call had not been answered by her, had left the troop to seek her, and then seen her lifeless form on the back of Rogala. He seemed to know that something was wrong. I would have given a good deal to know his thoughts.
We continued on our way. The monkey kept following us, watching, peeping down upon us and upon his dead mate. When we stopped, he stopped, his eyes always looking down upon us. I see them still to this day. I was so sorry I had killed his mate. I noticed that he never jumped from one limb of a tree to another, but crept along their trunks and branches, evidently wishing to make no noise to attract attention. He followed us to our camp. I could not tell why, but I did not feel like eating monkey that evening, for I thought I had never in an animal seen eyes with such a human expression. The next morning I saw him for an instant; he was still looking for his mate. But that was my last glimpse of him. He probably went back to his troop.