CHAPTER XV.
GOING INTO THE INTERIOR—SLEEPING WITH THE KING'S RATS—THE CHIMPANZEE—KILL A GAZELLE—TOO COLD TO SLEEP—THE GREY PARTRIDGE.
After this I went again to visit King Bango, and was announced to his Majesty by his great mafouga. I had an important object in paying this visit. I wished to ask the king to permit me to go into the interior and to spare me some people to show me the way.
Bango liked me, though I had declined to marry one of his beautiful daughters. So he granted my request, and gave me twenty-five men, some of whom were reputed great hunters in that country. They had killed many elephants and brought all the ivory to their king. They were the providers of the royal table, and passed their lives in the hunt and in the forest.
We made great preparations for the chase, for game was said to be plentiful. We were to encamp many days in the forest, and to have a jolly time, and a hard time, too, for the hunter's life is not an easy one. I was invited by the king to sleep in his palace, so that the next day I might start early; so I was led to my bedroom by the great mafouga. It was so dirty and gloomy that I wished myself fast asleep under a tree in the forest. I looked around, thinking that perhaps the king wanted to get rid of me, and had invited me there to have me murdered; but finding nothing suspicious, I concluded that old King Bango had never entertained such ideas, and I felt vexed at myself for having such thoughts on my mind. Then I extinguished the light and lay down on the royal couch. I had scarcely lain down when I began to hear a strange noise. At first I did not know what it meant. The noise in the room increased. What could it be? I tried to see through the darkness, but could distinguish nothing. Just then I felt something getting under my blanket. Confounded, I jumped up, not knowing what it might be. It was an enormous rat. As soon as I got up, I heard a perfect scrambling of rats going back where they came from, and then all became silent. I lay down on the bed again and tried to sleep, but in vain, on account of the assaults and gambols of the rats, of which there was a prodigious number. They seemed inclined to dispute possession of my room with me. They were continually on my bed, and running over my face. I soon got quite enough of the royal palace. I wished I had never come into it. But it was an excellent place for getting up early. No sooner had the morning twilight made its appearance than I rose and called my men together; and, though we could hardly see, we set out at once on the march.
I went in advance with Aboko, my head man, and Niamkala, the next best man, at my side. Both these men were great hunters, and had spent the principal part of their lives in the woods. They seemed really like men of the woods, so very wild were their looks. Aboko was a short, somewhat stout man; very black, and extremely muscular, very flat-nosed, and with big thick lips. His eyes were large and cunning, and seemed to wander about; his body bore marks of many scratches from thorny trees and briars; his legs displayed great strength. Niamkala, on the contrary, was tall and slender, not very dark; he had sharp piercing eyes, and seemed to be continually looking after something. Both were first-rate elephant hunters.
Aboko, Niamkala, and I became great friends, for we were all three hunters, and loved the woods.
Our way led through some beautiful prairies, each surrounded by dark forests, and seeming like natural gardens planted in this great woody wilderness. The country was really lovely. The surface was mostly rolling prairie, with a light sandy soil. The highest hills often broke into abrupt precipices, on which we would come suddenly; and if any of us had tumbled down to the bottom, he would never have been heard of again. The woods are the safe retreat of the elephant. Great herds of buffaloes are found there, also antelopes, which go out into the great grass fields by night to play and feed. Leopards are also abundant.