After more wanderings, they came to a country where the forest was full of deep narrow rivers and swamps. They entered it and remained on the dry land between the swamps, and there the two lived to a very great old age.
CHAPTER XLI
NJOKOOS AND THEIR BABIES
A njokoo and her baby, a few days old, were by themselves in the great forest. Mamma Njokoo had left the herd to which she belonged, for her little one was too small and could not climb the steep mountains and keep pace with the big njokoos when they were afraid and in full run. It is the custom of the mamma njokoos always to leave the others when they have a little one.
The baby njokoo’s little eyes looked very cunning. His bit of a trunk was going continually up and down, his ears flapped against his head, and his tail was always moving. To his mamma he was a very sweet little baby njokoo.
Often when Mamma Njokoo looked at her little one she would think of all the troubles and dangers that were ahead of him. The njokoos have wonderful memories, and she remembered all that she had gone through during her life, and how many escapes she had had in running away from those horrid human beings, whom she dreaded and hated so much, and how many of her friends had been snared and killed in their meshes. As she thought of all these tribulations and dangers, she said, half to herself and half to her little one: “Dear, as long as you are small, I shall fight and defend you. Then when you are big you will have to fight and run for yourself. You will have to be very wary if you want to reach your full size.”
One day she was delighted when she saw him pick up some leaves with his trunk and put them into his mouth, for the njokoos’ trunks are their hands. It was the first time that he had plucked leaves. He began to know how to get his own living. His mamma loved him dearly, and was by his side all the time, looking at him in such a tender way, caressing him with her big trunk, and once in a while giving soft trumpetings of affection, which showed how dear he was to her. So they spent their days together, and if they met some big animal, Mamma Njokoo would give shrill trumpetings of anger and come close to him to protect him. One night she stood still, close to him, until daylight, for she had scented a njego.
One day they met another njokoo with her baby, and they were glad to see each other, for both felt lonely. They uttered trumpetings of joy and said, “Let us stay together; it will not be so lonely.” And from that day they became companions. When they found branches with leaves that were tender, they would reach them with their trunks, and pull them down and break them, and give them to their little ones.
As time passed away, they met other njokoos with their babies. All made a herd entirely composed of mamma and baby njokoos, and the young ones liked to play together and became very fond of one another. The old ones thought they had never seen such a pretty set of little njokoos in their lives, and each was very proud of the one belonging to her.
Once, one of the little ones got entangled among the lianas, or wild vines, for the part of the forest in which they were was full of them. He trumpeted plaintively. As soon as the mother heard him, she came to him, and with her trunk set him free, and then scolded him for being so careless, and pointed out to him the thick lianas that were so close together that they formed a trap for little njokoos to get into, and taught him to look out for such places, and told him thereafter to be shy of them.
It is wonderful what the njokoos can do with their trunks. The hands of human beings could not be more nimble and dexterous, and it requires a good deal of thinking to separate one liana from another. But njokoos are very ingenious and intelligent.