At last I got better. I could not stand hunger and gouamba any longer, and determined to make up a regular hunting party and stay out till we got something to eat. Malaouen told me that if we went off about twenty miles we should come to a better game country. So we started in the direction he pointed out, and where he thought we should find the gorilla, or perhaps the nshiego mbouvé.
The men were covered with greegrees, or fetiches, and had cut their hands for luck. Anguilai told me that his ogana (idol) had told him that to-morrow the heart of the otanga (the white man) would be made glad, for we should kill game.
For some hours after we started we saw nothing but old tracks of different wild beasts, and I began to think that Anguilai's ogana had been too sanguine. Finally towards twelve o'clock, when we were crossing a kind of high table-land, we heard the cry of a young animal, which we recognised to be a nshiego mbouvé. At once all my troubles left me. I no longer felt either sick or hungry.
We crawled through the bush as silently as possible, still hearing the baby-like cry. At last, coming out into a little place where there was very little under-growth, we saw something running along the ground towards where we stood concealed. We hardly dared to breathe, for fear of awakening the animal's suspicions. When it came nearer, we saw it was a female nshiego mbouvé, running on all-fours, with a young one clinging to her breast. She was eagerly eating some berries, while with one arm she supported her little one.
Querlaouen, who had the fairest chance, fired, and brought her down. She dropped without a struggle. The poor little one cried, "Hew! hew! hew!" and clung to the dead body, sucking her breasts, and burying his head there, in alarm at the report of the gun.
We hurried up in great glee to secure our capture. I cannot tell my surprise when I saw that the nshiego baby's face was as white as that of a white child.
I looked at the mother, but found her black as soot in the face. What did it mean?—the mother black, the child white! The little one was about a foot in height. One of the men threw a cloth over its head and secured it, till we could make it fast with a rope; for, though it was quite young, it could walk. The old one was of the bald-headed kind of which I had secured the first known specimen some months before.
A YOUNG NSHIEGO MBOUVÉ WITH A WHITE FACE.
[CHAP. XXXVI.]
I immediately ordered a return to the camp, which we reached towards evening. The little nshiego had been all this time separated from its dead mother, and now, when it was put near her body, a most touching scene ensued. The little fellow ran instantly to her. Touching her on the face and breast, he saw evidently that some great change had happened. For a few minutes he caressed her, as though trying to coax her back to life. Then he seemed to lose all hope. His little eyes became very sad, and he broke out in a long, plaintive wail, "Ooee! ooee! ooee!" which made my heart ache for him. He looked quite forlorn, and as though he really felt his forsaken lot. All in the camp were touched at his sorrows, and the women especially were much moved.