We continued our march until it was near sunset. Then Oshoria stopped and said: “Let us stop here for the night, for the light in the forest is getting less bright, and warns us that it will be dark soon.”
The crocodile meat was getting somewhat tainted. We had got to the last piece. Henceforth we should have to rely upon berries, nuts, and fruits. After our meal the men filled their pipes and seated themselves by the fire. “To-morrow,” said Oshoria, “we must be most careful. Our eyes must look everywhere, and our ears must be listening. Sometimes men lie in wait in the trees along the path, and you are only aware of their presence when they throw a spear or a poisoned arrow, fire a gun at you, or capture you; then it is too late to look out.”
“I pointed out the footprints to them”
In the morning we started without breakfast. “Further on,” said Oshoria, “we shall come to the koola trees. This is the time of the year when they bear nuts. These are the best nuts found in the forest and we shall have plenty of food. The koola nut satisfies a man’s hunger better than any other berries or nuts. They taste so good. A man gets so much strength after he has eaten them.”
We were getting more and more hungry as the hours passed away, and had to drink water to keep up our strength. At last Ogoola said: “We are near the koola trees.” He was right. A little further on he pointed out to me a grove of four magnificent koola trees. They towered above the other trees round them, and as I was looking at them nut after nut fell. These nuts were dark, quite round, and of the size of a walnut.
The men immediately began to break them with stones. The shell is very hard and thick. The kernel is as large as that of a cherry. My dear hunters, even before they ate a single one, poured them upon my lap, and said:
“Oguizi, eat, eat; you are hungry.”
“No,” said I, “we will eat together.” They broke the shells of a lot of the nuts and afterwards we began to eat them. The kernel was whitish and as condensed in substance as the almond. After I had eaten some thirty of them I could not eat one more. We all laid ourselves flat on the ground and took a nap, for we were exhausted from hunger. When we awoke we could hear the nuts falling on the ground—sometimes one by one, sometimes a lot together. This delighted our hearts, for no man could go up the trees, they were so tall and their trunks were so big.
That day we collected all the nuts that fell on the ground and made our supper of them. After our meal we seated ourselves in the centre of our fires; then the men filled their pipes. Ogoola, who had been the first to see the koola trees, said: “Oguizi, if it were not for the koola trees we hunters would often die of hunger in the forest. Aniembié [the good spirit] made them grow for us. Men cannot subsist on berries and fruits; not only are they not strengthening—though they prevent a man from starving—but if you eat too much of them you are sure to be ill with dysentery. We are never ill from eating koola nuts.”