As I was speaking, a goat, the peace-offering of the king, stood before me, and several bunches of plantain lay near by, which had been brought in a little before by his people. The king said, "Eat these, Spirit. In two days I will conduct you where you want to go. I am so glad to hear that you do not kill people, but surely us Ashangos are afraid of you; but in a day's journey you will reach the Njavi country."
Then the queen said, "I told you, my husband, that the Oguizi did not kill people as the Ashangos kill monkeys. Now don't you believe me?" said she, looking at the king right in the face. Then, turning to me, she said, "Oguizi, I am cooking a pot of koa (a root) for you and your men; will you eat them?"
"Certainly," said I.
I had hardly uttered those words when there appeared before us four warriors of a hostile village, who said they would make war on the Mouaou-Kombo people if they dared to take me through their village; that they did not want me to pass that way.
Kombo, the chief, said to me, "Oguizi, go in your hut; I do not want these people to see you," and he asked my men to fire guns to frighten the warriors. Igala fired, advancing toward the four warriors, who fled. I could not help laughing. Other guns were fired, when I heard, back of where the king and queen and myself were seated, the report of another gun, and I was startled to see the Mouaou villagers, with affrighted looks and shouts of alarm, running away in every direction. The king and queen got up, and fled along with the rest.
"Mamo! mamo!" was heard every where.
I got up, and, looking back in the direction where the gun had been fired, I saw, not far from my hut, the lifeless body of a leading Ashango man.
Igalo had done the deed. He rushed toward me and shouted, "I did not do it on purpose; the gun went off before I had raised it."
Now, indeed, I might be sure that the Ashangos would believe that the Oguizi could kill people as they did monkeys.
What was to be done? I was hundreds of miles away from the sea.