“Our dogs are brave and a number of them are not even afraid of leopards. These leopards, when they become man-eaters, like the meat of man better than any other. Some years ago a leopard prowling near our plantation succeeded, to our great sorrow, in killing and devouring two people, a man and a woman. Our idol said that we must go and hunt the leopard. Then, taking our dogs with us, we went in search of him. After a while we heard the fierce barking of the dogs. They had discovered the leopard’s lair, and we came up just in time to see a huge male leopard spring upon one of the dogs and crush him between his jaws. With fierce glaring eyes he looked at us, then he let the dog drop from his mouth and lay flat on the ground ready to spring on one of us. But we were ready for the beast, and before he had time to spring we fired and killed him on the spot. The belt I wear is from the skin of this leopard.”
When the leopard story was ended it was time to go to sleep, and we all left for our respective quarters bidding each other good-night.
CHAPTER XIV
A GREAT HUNTING-FEAST—“ROONDAH”—DIFFERENT VIANDS OF THE MENU—SPEECHES AT THE BANQUET—MUSIC AND DANCING—A WEIRD FOREST-SCENE IN THE TORCHLIGHT.
One afternoon Regundo said to me: “Oguizi, all the hunters and all the men on the different plantations have gone into the forest to hunt, for we want to give a big feast. They will not return for three days. Some have gone net-hunting, others will make traps to catch game, and some hunters have gone with their guns.”
I had accustomed myself to eat the food of the natives. I often fed, while hunting, on fruits, berries and nuts. I ate all that came in my way—elephant, crocodile, buffalo, antelope, monkey, and all kinds of strange animals—and, when starving, I ate even snakes. Bread had been unknown to me since I had lived in the country. Plantain and manioc were my bread when I could get them. In a word, I ate whatever I could get; it was better to do so than to die of starvation.
During the absence of the men, I saw that the women were preparing food; large wooden mortars were filled up with manioc, a root which had been left to soak in the water. The manioc was pounded into a paste which was boiled and became thick and firm. This paste was then shaped into long loaves, enveloped with plantain leaves, these being used instead of the paper we should use at home. These loaves can be kept quite a number of days. To the palate the manioc is somewhat sour.
Some women had been collecting njavi nuts, which come from one of the most beautiful and largest trees of the forest. They boiled the seed, which they mashed afterward on hollowed-out boards, squeezing the paste with their hands, thus extracting the oil, which they poured into gourds.
The small children were busy skinning the squash-seeds, after which the seed was put into a mortar and pounded, forming a very fine paste to which, from time to time, a little njavi oil was added. This is mixed with meat afterwards.
One woman was busy making ndica. She had put seeds of the wild mango into a mortar, and pounded these into a paste, after which the paste was kneaded into the form of a big square cake and left to dry.